Identification and quantitation of major phenolic compounds from Penthorum chinense Pursh. by HPLC with tandem mass spectrometry and HPLC with diode array detection

Penthorum chinense Pursh. is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine used for the treatment of various ailments specially related to liver. Gansu Granule, the medicine made from the extract of P. chinense, has been widely used in the clinical setting. But the information about its active ingredients is lacking. In this paper, the extract of P. chinense was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Among the 27 compounds that were identified based on their mass spectrometry data, ten were reported for the first time from P. chinense. Chromatographic fingerprints generated by high-performance liquid chromatography by analyzing 21 batches of P. chinense, displayed six common peaks. Finally, four major compounds were identified namely; gallic acid, brevifolin carboxylic acid, 2,6-dihydroxyacetophenone-4-O-β-D-glucoside, and pinocembrin-7-O-β-D-glucoside. The average content of each compound was 24.58, 109.6, 15.52, and 18.81 mg/g, respectively. In addition, this study also suggests that the qualitative liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry and the quantitative high-performance liquid chromatography analytical methods using monolithic columns are simple, rapid, accurate, and reproducible and have the potential to be used for the comprehensive quality control of P. chinense.