Quantitative assessment of traditional Oriental herbal formulation Samhwangsasim-tang using UPLC technique

A specific and reliable ultra-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection method has been developed and validated for the quantitative assessment of a traditional Oriental herbal formulation, Samhwangsasim-tang (SST). A Halo reversed-phase amide column (2.7 µm, 4.6 × 150 mm) was used to separate marker compounds; detection was conducted by ultraviolet absorbance at 250 nm. The column temperature was maintained at 45°C. A mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile (A) and 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid in water (B) was found to be suitable for the separation, at a flow rate of 1.8 mL/min with gradient elution. Linearity, specificity, precision and recovery were calculated to validate the method and instrumentation. Under the described conditions, all marker compounds (rhaponticin, berberine, palmatine, baicalin, baicalein and wogonin) were collected within 25 min. All calibration curves of components showed good linearity (correlation coefficient > 0.9996). The limit of detection and limit of quantification ranged from 0.08-3.05 and 0.23-8.12 µg/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) and repeatability values of intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 2.30, 2.99 and 1.82%, respectively. In the recovery test, the accuracy ranged from 97.56-103.30% with RSD values less than 2.63%. The developed method was simple, specific, sensitive, accurate, precise and reproducible for the quantification of the active chemical constituents of SST. The simultaneous analysis of the contents of marker compounds in different SST samples prepared by different extraction procedures and different commercial products was successfully evaluated.