Xiong Ma Tang (XMT), one of the ancient herbal prescriptions, has been used in treatment of migraine disease. In this study, efficient high-performance liquid chromatographic fingerprints were developed for identification of 11 major marker components, named 1-(β-D-ribofuranosyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazone, gastrodin, ligustrazine, 3,4-bihydroxy benzaldehyde, p-hydroxy benzaldehyde, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, benzoic acid, vanillin, ferulic acid, caffeic acid and senkyunolide I, respectively, in XMT and three related preparations. The analysis of 11 marker compounds was carried out using a Kromasil C18 reserved-phase column (5 μm, 4.6 × 250 mm) and gradient elution with methanol and aqueous phosphoric acid (0.1%, v/v). The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min and the detector wavelength was set at 276 nm. Mean chromatograms and correlation coefficients of samples were calculated by the software "Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of Traditional Chinese Medicine". The correlation coefficients of XMT and three related preparations ranged from 0.935 to 0.986, 0.909 to 0.949, 0.900 to 0.926 and 0.937 to 0.988, respectively. It was the first time 11 peaks of XMT and three related preparations were identified by comparing with standard compounds. These results have shown that the developed method was efficient for the quality evaluation of XMT and its related preparations.
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