RESUMO
Objective:To establish a method for quantitative analysis of the active ingredients including salidroside, rosarin and rosavin and content determination in Rhodiola rosea at different harvest months. Methods:HPLC was used on an X selectHSS T3 (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) column with mobile phase consisting of methol-acetonitrile-phosphoric acid (0.05%) aqueous solution for gradient elution at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The wavelength was detected at 275 nm (salidroside) and 254 nm (rosarin, rosavin). The column temperature was set at 30 ℃ and the injection volume was 5 μl.Results:The peak areas of Salidroside, rosarin and rosavin showed good linear relationships ( r > 0.999) with the content in the ranges of 44-1 420, 10-307 and 18-573 μg, respectively. The method was precise, stable, repeatable and the sample recovery test all well satisfied the requirements of quantitative analysis. The highest accumulation of the active ingredients was observed in Rhodiola rosea in September and the content of salidroside, rosarin and rosavin were 0.66, 0.07 and 0.53 mg/g, respectively. Conclusion:This method is simple and rapid to evaluate the content of active ingredients in Rhodiola rosea.