Simultaneous Determination of Four Kinds of Rare Saponins in Black Ginseng by HPLC / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To establish an HPLC method for determining four kinds of rare saponins, ie, 20(S)-Rg3, 20(R)-Rg3, Rk1, and Rg5 in black ginseng. METHODS: COSMOSIL C18-PAQ (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm) column was used and temperature was maintained at 30℃. Gradient elution was conducted using mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water at a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min-1. The detection wavelength was set at 203 nm. The injected sample volume was 10 μL. RESULTS: Good resolution was achieved for the four rare saponins in the ranges of 0.051-0.256 (r=0.999 9), 0.009-0.280(r=0.999 7), 0.051-0.303(r=0.999 9) and 0.093-0.279 mg·mL-1(r=0.999 9) for 20(S)-Rg3, 20(R)-Rg3, Rk1, and Rg5, respectively. The corresponding average recovery rates were 103.9%, 99.2%, 97.0%, and 100.6%, and the standard deviations were 0.71%, 0.73%, 1.97%, and 0.57%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The method is accurate, simple, reliable and reproducible for the determination of saponins in black ginseng. The determination result can be used as a reference for the rational medication, quality control, and further study of black ginseng.