Simultaneous quantification of six major active saponins of Panax notoginseng by high-performance liquid chromatography-UV method

A simple, sensitive and specific high-performance liquid chromatography-UV (HPLC-UV) method has been developed for the first time to simultaneously quantify the six major active saponins of Panax notoginseng, namely notoginsenoside R-1, ginsenoside Rg(1), Rb-1, Rg(2), Rh-1 and Rd. Astragaloside IV is used as the internal standard. This HPLC assay was performed on a reversed-phase C-18 column with gradient elution of acetonitrile and 0.01% formic acid in 30 min. The method provided good reproducibility and sensitivity for the quantification of six saponins with overall intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy of less than 4.0% and higher than 90%, respectively. This assay is successfully applied to the determination of the six saponins in 23 notoginseng samples. The results indicated that the developed HPLC assay can be readily utilized as a quality control method for P. notoginseng. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.