Determination of 22 ginsenosides in ginseng products using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography

A reverse-phase ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (u-HPLC) method was developed for the rapid quantification of 22 ginsenosides in ginseng products. The proposed method for the analysis of ginsenosides is based on a heating-block method without further treatment. The u-HPLC separation was performed on a reversed C18 column (100 × 2 mm id, particle size 2 µm) followed by ultraviolet detection at 203 nm. Aqueous 50% methanol was used as the extraction solvent. The optimum amount of extraction solvent and the optimum extraction time were 20 mL and 20 min (extracted twice with 10 mL), respectively. The method validation parameters yielded good results for linearity, precision, accuracy and recovery. The recovery of ginsenosides from ginseng powder was greater than 98.1% and the limits of detection and quantification of the u-HPLC analysis were >0.6 and >1.8 mg/kg for ginsenosides. The calibration graphs for ginsenosides were linear from approximately 2.6 to 40.4 mg/kg for u-HPLC. The inter-day and intra-day precisions (relative standard deviation values) were <14.6 and 14.7%, except for Rg2(R) + Rh1(R).