Study on UPLC–MS/MS Method for Four Compositions of Cangzhu

Background The legal quality control of Cangzhu is used the single component as an evaluation indicator, which would not be enough to reflect the authenticity of quality. It is necessary to select several typical chemical components as the basis for quality control of medicinal materials and decoction pieces to reflect the content of effective ingredients. Purpose Based on UPLC-MS/MS, the study aimed to build the content determination method of atractyloidin, atractylidin A, atractylenolide I, and atractylenolide III in Cangzhu from different sources. Materials and Methods Agilent SB-C18 (2.1 × 100 µm, 1.8 µm) was used to be the stationary phase. The mobile phase system was formed by water-formic acid (1000:1) and acetonitrile-formic acid (1000:1) in gradient elution. The column temperature set at 40℃, and the flow rate was 0.3 mL min –1 . Results The contents of atractyloidin, atractylidin A, atractylenolide I, and atractylenolide III had good linearity in a certain range (r 2 ≥ 0. 9990). The RSD of the precision, stability and repetitive test results were less than 3.00%. In addition, the content of the four components were some different among different patches of Cangzhu. Conclusion The method was simple, rapid and highly sensitive, which was suitable for the determination of atractyloidin, atractylidin A, atractylenolide I, and atractylenolide III in Cangzhu.