Qualitative and quantitative analysis of major constituents from Dazhu Hongjingtian capsule by UPLC/Q‐TOF‐MS/MS combined with UPLC/QQQ‐MS/MS

In this work, a sensitive and efficient method was established and validated for qualitative and quantitative analysis of major bioactive constituents in Dazhu Hongjingtian capsule by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 32 compounds were tentatively identified using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Furthermore, 12 constituents, namely gallic acid, 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, salidroside, p-coumaric acid-4-O-β-d-glucopyranoside, bergeninum, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, syringate, 6′′-O-galloylsalidroside, rhodiosin, rhodionin and kaempferol-7-O-α-l-rhamnoside, were simultaneously quantified by the developed ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method in 9 min. All of them were analyzed on an Agilent ZorBax SB-C18 column (3.0 × 100 mm, 1.8 μm) with linear gradient elution of methanol–0.1% formic acid water. The proposed method was applied to analyze three batches of samples with acceptable linearity (R, 0.9979–0.9997), precision (RSD, 1.3–4.7%), repeatability (RSD, 1.7–4.9%), stability (RSD, 2.2–4.9%) and recovery (RSD, 0.6–4.4%) of the 12 compounds. As a result, the analytical method possessing high throughput and sensitivity is suitable for the quality control of Dazhu Hongjingtian capsule.