A simple and accurate analytical method was developed for simultaneous and quantitative analysis of six triterpenoid saponins in Schefflera kwangsiensis via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with mass spectrometry (MS) in this study. Separation was performed on a Thermo hypersil GOLD C18 column (150 mm × 2.1 mm, 5 μm). A mobile phase consisting of methanol/acetonitrile/8 mM ammonium acetate in water was used with a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The analytes were detected by MS with the electrospray ionisation (ESI) source combined with negative monitoring and full scan mode, and were analysed by extracted ion chromatography. This established HPLC-ESI-MS analysis demonstrated good linearity, sensitivity, stability, precision, accuracy and recovery. Therefore, this analytical method has great potential to be a novel tool to qualify S. kwangsiensis.
Keywords: HPLC-ESI-MS; Schefflera kwangsiensis; quantitative analysis; triterpenoid saponins.