Simultaneous determination of 15 ginsenosides from Panacis Majoris Rhizoma by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: A high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method for the simultaneous determination of 15 ginsenoside compounds from Panacis Majoris Rhizoma (PMR) was developed. Methods: A Waters Sunfire ™ C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) was used for the separation. The mobile phase consisted of A (H2O + 0.05% HCOOH) and B (CH3CN + 0.05% HCOOH) using a gradient elution. For the quantification of ginsenosides, the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode of the mass spectrometer was applied and the declustering potential (DP), collision energy (CE), and collision cell exit potential (CXP) were optimized to perform automatic on-line MS/MS experiments during the chromatographic separation. Results: By using the optimized method, the linearity range of 15 analytes was 0.000 9 to 2 952.592 3 μg/mL with more than 0.999 determination coefficient (r) of linear regressions, the detection limits of the 15 ginsenosides ranged from 0.003 to 626.554 ng/mL, the limits of quantitation ranged from 0.075 to 1 762.150 ng/mL, the recoveries of 15 ginsenosides in the samples were 98.15%-101.12% with relative standard deviation (RSD) that ranged from 0.82% to 2.15%. Conclusion: The proposed LC-MS/MS method is accurate and reproducible in accordance with TCM guidelines, showing high sensitivity, rapidness, and recovery. This method allows the assessment of various ginsenosides in a single analytical run providing an innovative tool to control Panacis Majoris Rhizoma materials quantification.