Quantitative determination of 5 active ingredients in different harvest periods of Ligusticum chuanxiong by HPLC

A simple and quick method is described for the determination of ferulic acid,senkyunolide I,senkyunolide H,senkyunolide A and ligustilide in rhizomes of Ligusticum chuanxiong. The 5 active ingredients in the sample was extracted using 40% ethanol and analyzed by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography( HPLC). Chromatography separation was performed using Agilent 1100 series HPLC system with a Symmetry C18column and gradient elution with a mixture of three solvents:solvent A,acetonitrile,solvent B,methanol and solvent C,1% aqueous acetic acid,0 min to 5 min A∶ B∶ C 20∶ 40∶ 40,5 min to 30 min A∶ B∶ C 60 to 100∶ 0∶ 40 to 0. The effluent was monitored using a VWD detector set at 321 nm(0-4. 3 min) and 275 nm(4. 31-30 min). The flow rate was set at 1 mL·min-1and the injection volume was 10 μL. The column temperature was maintained at 35 ℃. The calibration curve was linear( r≥0. 99) over the tested ranges. The average recovery was 94. 44%-103. 1%( n = 6). The method has been successfully applied to the analysis in different harvest periods of L. chuanxiong samples. In this paper,single-factor randomized block design to study the 5 components content of L. chuanxiong on ten collecting stages. For the L. chuanxiong collected from April 15th to May 30rd,the content of 5 ingredients increased primarily,and then decreased. Determine the appropriate harvest time has important significance to the promotion of the quality of L. chuanxiong.