A HPLC-DAD method for the simultaneous determination of five marker components in the traditional herbal medicine Bangpungtongsung-san

Background: Bangpungtongsung-san, one of the traditional herbal medicines, was known to be a prescription for obesity. Objective: For the simultaneous determination of five components (paeoniflorin, 6-gingerol, decursin, geniposide, and glycyrrhizin) in Bangpungtongsung-san, a high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detector method was established. Materials and Methods: To develop the method, a reverse phase column, DIONEX C ₁₈ (5 μm, 120 Å, 4.6 mm × 150 mm) was used. The mobile phase consisted of methanol and water using a gradient elution. The UV wavelength was set at 230, 240, and 254 nm. Method validation was accomplished by linearity, precision test, and recovery test. Results: All calibration curves of components showed good linearity (R ² > 0.9959). The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) ranged from 0.01 to 0.17 μg/ml and 0.04 to 0.53 μg/ml, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSD) value of precision test, intraday and interday tests were less than 0.43% and 1.26%. In the recovery test, results of accuracy ranged from 95.27% to 107.70% with RSD values less than 2.21%. Conclusion: This developed method was applied to the commercial Bangpungtongsung-san sample and the five marker components were separated effectively without interference of any peaks of components.