Simultaneous Determination of Seven Bioactive Compounds in Chinese Medicine “QI-SHEN-YI-QI” Dropping Pill by LC-UV and LC-ELSD

A high performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet detection and evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-UV-ELSD) method was developed for simultaneously determining seven bioactive components, i.e. danshensu, protocatechuic aldehyde, salvianolic acid B, notoginsenoside R1, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, and astragaloside IV in “QI-SHEN-YI-QI” dropping pill, a widely used traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treating cardiovascular disease. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Zorbax Stable Bond C18 column using gradient elution with acetonitrile and water with acceptable validation results such as linearity and recovery. The recoveries of the seven investigated compounds ranged from 93.3 to 100.2% with RSD values less than 5%. More importantly, this proposed method was successfully used to determine the seven compounds in nine batches of “QI-SHEN-YI-QI” dropping pills, which indicated that the proposed method could be readily utilized as a quality control method for this TCM preparation.