Ultra high performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry coupled with hierarchical cluster analysis to evaluate Wikstroemia indica (L.) C. A. Mey. from different geographical regions

A sensitive, rapid and simple ultra high performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method was developed to determine seven constituents (umbelliferone, apigenin, triumbelletin, daphnoretin, arctigenin, genkwanin and emodin) in Wikstroemia indica (L.) C. A. Mey. The chromatographic analysis was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC (R) BEHC18 column (2.1 x 50 mm, 1.7 mu m) by gradient elution with the mobile phase of 0.05% formic acid aqueous solution (A) and acetonitrile (B). Multiple reaction monitoring mode with positive and negative electrospray ionization interface was carried out to detect the components. This method was validated in terms of specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision and stability. Excellent linear behavior was observed over the certain concentration ranges with the correlation coefficient values higher than 0.999. The intraday and innerday precisions were within 2.0%. The recoveries of seven analytes were 99.4-101.1% with relative standard deviation less than 1.2%. The 18 Wikstroemia indica samples from different origins were classified by hierarchical clustering analysis according to the contents of seven components. The results demonstrated that the developed method could successfully be used to quantify simultaneously of seven components in Wikstroemia indica and could be a helpful tool for the detection and confirmation of the quality of traditional Chinese medicines.