A simple and accurate high-performance liquid chromatographic method was applied to the quantitative analysis of seven components of the traditional herbal prescription Jaeumganghwa-tang (JGT), including 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde, albiflorin, paeoniflorin, liquiritin, ferulic acid, nodakenin, and glycyrrhizin. All seven compounds were separated in less than 40 min on a Gemini C18 column at 40°C by gradient elution using 1.0% (v/v) aqueous acetic acid and acetonitrile containing 1.0% (v/v) acetic acid as mobile phase. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min and the detector was a photodiode array (PDA) set at 230 nm, 254 nm, 280 nm, and 330 nm. The calibration curves showed good linearity (r (2) > 0.9998) in different concentration ranges. The recovery of each component was in the range of 91.47-102.62%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs, %) less than 4.5%. The RSDs (%) for intra- and interday precision were 0.06-2.85% and 0.06-2.83%, respectively. The concentrations of the seven components in JGT were in the range 0.74-5.48 mg/g.
Keywords: HPLC-PDA; Herbal prescription; Jaeumganghwa-tang; Jiin-koka-to; Simultaneous determination; Zi-yin-jiang-huo-tang.