Simultaneous quantification of six main active constituents in Chinese Angelica by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector

Background: Angelica sinensis is a famous traditional Chinese medicinalherb, which is predominantly used in the treatment of gynecological conditions.It is the first report for the simultaneous determination of six major active components in Chinese Angelica, which is important for quality control. Objective: A validated HPLC-PAD method was first developed to evaluate the quality of crude and processed Radix Angelica through simultaneous determination of six bioactive compounds, namely ferulic acid, senkyunolide I, senkyunolide H, coniferyl ferulate, Z/E-ligustilide and Z/E-butylidenephthalide. Materials and Methods: Samples were separated on a Xtimate™C ₁₈ column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) and detected by PAD. Mobile phase was composed of (A) aqueous phosphoric acid (0.02%, v/v) and (B) acetonitrile (MeCN) (including 10% tetrahydrofuran, v/v) using a gradient elution. Analytes were performed at 30°C with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Results: All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r ² ≥ 0.9963) within the tested ranges, and the recovery of the method was in the range of 91.927-105.859%. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the developed method is accurate and reproducible and could be readily utilized as a suitable quality control method for the quantification of Radix Angelica.