Context: Fructus Corni, a traditional Chinese medicines, is derived from the dry ripe sarcocarp of Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc (Cornaceae). Gallic acid, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, morroniside, sweroside, loganin, cornin, 7-O-methyl-morroniside and cornuside are the active constituents of Fructus Corni used in many traditional Chinese medicines. This paper describes a sensitive and specific assay for the determination of the eight bioactive compounds in crude and processed Fructus Corni extracts.
Materials and methods: In this paper, the eight components were determined by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Quantization was based on multiple reaction monitoring using the precursor production combination for determination of the eight analytes. The analysis was performed on an Agilent Zorbax Extend C(18) column (100 mm × 3.0 mm, 3.5 μm), and an electrospray ionization (ESI)-tandem interface in the positive and negative ion polarity mode was employed prior to mass spectrometric detection.
Results: With the optimized conditions, the eight bioactive compounds were detected properly within 10 min. The developed method showed good precision and reproducibility with the limits of detection ranged from 0.0042 to 12.7875 ng/mL and the average recoveries ranged from 97.08 to 103.7%.
Discussion and conclusion: This newly established method is validated as simple, reliable and accurate. It can be used as a valid analytical method for intrinsic quality control of crude and processed Fructus Corni.