Identification and determination of the major constituents in the traditional uighur medicinal plant saussurea involucrata by LC-DAD-MS

A liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method was developed for the simultaneous analysis of the major constituents in Saussurea involucrata (SI). A comprehensive validation of the developed method was conducted, and the unique properties of the present method were confirmed by analyzing 11 SI samples. Seventeen compounds including phenolic acids, flavonoids, and lignanoids were identified by online ESI-MS and by comparison with known data in the literature and standard compounds; of these, eight were simultaneously quantified by LC-DAD. All linear regressions were acquired with R ² > 0.99, and the limits of detection ranged from 0.85 to 3.03 ng. Repeatability was evaluated by intra- and inter-day assays; the relative standard deviation (RSD) value was within 4.95%. Recovery studies for the quantified compounds were found to be within the range 97.31-101.17% with an RSD of less than 2.18%. Overall, the present hyphenation procedure is highly efficient and reliable, and hence suitable for qualitative and quantitative analysis of a large number of samples.