Simultaneous determination of five effective components in Qingrejiedu oral liquid using high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

A high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI/MS) method for the simultaneous determination of five effective components in Qingrejiedu oral liquid was developed. The HPLC separation was performed on a Zorbax SB C-18 column (250 mm x 3. 0 mm, 5 mu m) using 0. 4 mmol/L sodium acetate solution containing 0. 2% formic acid (A) and acetonitrile (B) as the mobile phase with gradient elution (0 min, 10% B; 0 -> 6 min, 10% B -> 30% B; 6 -> 15 min, 30% B -> 39% B; 15 -> 16 min, 39% B -> 80% B) at a flow rate of 0. 35 mL/min. The analytes were detected by ESI(+)-MS under selected ion monitoring mode (0 -> 9. 7 min, m/z 377; 9. 7 -> 12 min, m/z 411; 12 -> 14. 7 min, m/z 447; 14. 7 -> 18 min, m/z 557; 18 -> 25 min, m/z 263). The linear ranges were 0. 050-50 mg/L, 0. 020-20 mg/L, 0. 005-30 mg/L, 0. 010-15 mg/L and 0. 010-10 mg/L with detection limits of 0. 010 0. 005 0. 001 0. 002 and 0. 003 mg/L for chlorogenic acid, geniposide baicalin, forsythin and indirubin, respectively. The average recoveries ranged from 97. 0% to 101. 7%. The relative standard deviations were less than 2. 2%. This method is rapid, accurate, and suitable for the quality control of the five effective components in Qingrejiedu oral liquid.