Quantitative Analysis of Twelve Marker Compounds in Palmijihwang-hwan using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Electrospray Ionization Tandem Mass Spectrometry

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS) method was established for quantitative analysis of twelve components, allantoin (1), morroniside (2), 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (5-HMF) (3), loganin (4), coumarin (5), cinnamic acid (6), mesaconitine (7), cinnamaldehyde (8), hypaconitine (9), aconitine (10), alisol B (11), and alisol B acetate (12) in a Palmijihwang-hwan decoction. The twelve constituents were separated on a UPLC BEH C18 column ($2.1{\times}100mm$, $1.7{\mu}m$) at a column temperature of $40^{\circ}C$ by gradient elution with 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in water and acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The flow rate was 0.3 mL/min and the injection volume was $2.0{\mu}L$. Calibration curves of all compounds were acquired with values of the correlation coefficient ${\geq}0.99$ within the test ranges. The limits of detection and quantification for all analytes were 0.01 - 4.53 ng/mL and 0.03 - 13.60 ng/mL, respectively. The concentrations of the compounds 1 - 9 and 12 were 72.83, 4389.00, 4859.00, 3155.17, 223.67, 33.50, 1.97, 518.00, 2.25, and $25.00{\mu}g/g$, respectively. However, compounds 10 and 11 were not detected.