Simultaneous Determination of Thirteen Iridoid Glycosides in Crude and Processed Fructus Corni from Different Areas...

Fructus Corni (F. Corni) is the dried mature pulp of Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc.(Cornaceae), which is rich in iridoids. In this study, a simple, sensitive and rapid UPLC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 13 iridoid glycosides of F. Corni from different areas. Specifically, we included five new compounds (cornusdiridoid C, cornusdiridoid E, cornusdiridoid F, 3'',5''-dehydroxycornuside and 2'-O-p-coumaroyl-kingiside) and isomers (2'-O-p-E-coumaroylloganin and 2'-O-p-Z-coumaroylloganin) for the first time in the quality markers of F. Corni. A total of 13 compounds and two pairs of isomers were well isolated and tested within just 14 min. All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r2 ≥ 0.99) within the tested concentration ranges. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were in the range of 0.19-1.90 and 0.38-3.76 ng/mL, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precision were <3.21% and 12.49%, the RSD values of repeatability did not exceed 6.81% and the average recoveries were 90.95-113.59% for the analytes. All iridoid glycosides stabilized within 12 h (RSD < 10.99%). This method has been successfully applied to the quality evaluation of crude and processed F. Corni from different areas. The determination of characteristic iridoid glycosides and isomers will provide a more reliable and comprehensive method for the evaluation of F. Corni.