Simultaneous determination of four marker components in Yukmijihwang Tang by high performance liquid chromatography/diode array detector

Simultaneous determination method of four marker components, paeoniflorin, loganin, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde and paeonol in traditional herbal medicine, Yukmijihwang tang, was developed to achieve rapidly and systematic quality control by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection. To develop this high performance liquid chromatography method, C18 column (5 μm, 120 Å, 4.6 mm × 150 mm) was used with gradient elution of water and methanol as mobile phase. Validation of the chromatography method was evaluated by linearity, recovery, and precision test. Calibration curves of standard components showed excellent linearity with R2 > 0.9990. Limits of detection and limits of quantification were in the ranges 0.01–0.02 and 0.04–0.07 μg/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviations of data of the intra-day and inter-day experiments were less than 1.15% and 3.76%, respectively. The results of recovery test were found to range from 94.88 to 107.43% with relative standard deviation values 0.07–2.66%. The results of validation suggested that this method was very accurate and stabilized.