Quantitative Analysis of Eleven Bioactive Constituents of a Traditional Herbal Medicine, Yeonggyechulgam-tang using, Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method of efficiently assessing the quality of a traditional herbal medicine called Yeonggyechulgam-tang (YGCGT). The following compounds 1 – 11, namely, liquiritin apioside (1), liquiritin (2), liquiritigene (3), coumarin (4), cinnamic acid (5), cinnamaldehyde (6), glycyrrhizin (7), atractylenolide III (8), atractylenolide II (9), atractylenolide I (10), and pachymic acid (11) were separated on a UPLC BEH C₁₈ column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 µm) at a column temperature of 45℃ eluted with a gradient condition of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in distilled water and acetonitrile. The correlation coefficient of the calibration curve of the eleven constituents was ≥ 0.9936. The limits of detection and quantification of the compounds 1 – 11 were 0.06 – 4.73 ng/mL and 0.17–14.20 ng/mL, respectively. Using this analytical method, the compound 11 in lyophilized YGCGT decoction extract was not detected, while the compounds 1 – 10 were detected 0.13–166.43 mg/g.