Identification and discrimination of three common Aloe species by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass...

Aloe arborescens, Aloe barbadensis and Aloe ferox are the most widely cultivated and used among 500 aloe species due to their potent bioactivity. However, the difference of aloe species is neglected and labeled only one name Aloe in the market without specifying aloe species discrimination in general. Furthermore, differences in bioactivity and side effects from different aloe species have not been well investigated. This study develops an effective method for simultaneous qualitative and quantitative determination of three common aloe species using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) and high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The extraction conditions were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) based on methanol concentration, extraction time and solvent-to-material ratio. A partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used to identify the three aloe species. The developed HPLC-MS/MS method coupled with multivariate analysis can be applied to discriminate three aloe species successfully.