Determination of six bioactive compounds in buyang huanwu decoction by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray mass spectrometry

A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with an electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) method was developed for the determination of six bioactive compounds in a Buyang Huanwu decoction (BYHWD), which was composed of seven spices of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs). The separations were performed on a Shim-pack (VP-ODS) C₁₈ analytical column (5 μm, 250×4.6mm ID, Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan) with the column temperature maintained at 30°C. A linear gradient elution of A (0.1% formic acid solution) and B (100% acetonitrile) was used at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The six compounds in BYHWD were identified by an Agilent-1100 HPLC system with a photodiode array detector coupled with an LC/MSD Trap SL electrospray ion mass spectrometer, and the contents of these compounds were determined by a Shimadzu 20A HPLC system coupled with a LCMS-2010EV quadrupole mass spectrometer. The standard calibration curves were linear with regression coefficient r²>0.99. The intra-day and inter-day precisions of this method were evaluated with the relative standard deviation values (less than 2.06% and 2.88%, respectively). The recoveries of the six investigated compounds exceeded 96%. This method was successfully used to determine the six target compounds in BYHWD.