Simultaneous determination of five marker compounds in Xuanfu Daizhe Tang by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection for quality control

Background: Xuanfu Daizhe Tang (XDT) is a classical traditional Chinese medicinal prescription that has been widely used for treating digestive system illnesses for hundreds of years. Materials and Methods: In this study, a simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method was established for the simultaneous determination of five marker compounds in XDT including chlorogenic acid, glycyrrhizic acid, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1 and ginsenoside Re, for quality control of this well-known traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Results: These compounds were separated in less than 130 min using a YMC C18 column with a gradient elution system of acetonitrile and 0.1% phosphoric acid water solution at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. All calibration curves of standard components showed good linearity with R-2>0.9991. Limit of detection and limit of quantification varied from 0.11 to 4.3 mu g/ml and 0.20 to 11.6 mu g/ml, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the intra-day and inter-day experiments were less than 4.72 and 5.48%, respectively. The accuracy of recovery test ranged from 95.0 to 105.0% with RSD values 1.28-4.32%. Conclusion: The validated method is simple, reliable, and successfully applied to determine the contents of the selected compounds in XDT for quality control.