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Planta Med 2003; 69(5): 445-451
DOI: 10.1055/s-2003-39709
Original Paper
Analytical Methods
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Simultaneous Analysis of Seventeen Chemical Ingredients of Ligusticum chuanxiong by On-Line High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector-Mass Spectrometry

Song-Lin Li1, 3 , Sunny Sun-Kin Chan1 , Ge Lin1 , Lei Ling2 , Ru Yan1 , Hoi-Sing Chung1 , Yun-Kau Tam2
  • 1Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong SAR
  • 2Kinetana Hong Kong Herbal Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong SAR
  • 3Post-doctoral fellow from Institute of Nanjing Military Command for Drug Control, Nanjing, 210002, P. R. China
Further Information

Publication History

Received: September 3, 2002

Accepted: January 25, 2003

Publication Date:
12 June 2003 (online)

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Abstract

An on-line high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-diode array detector (DAD)-mass spectrometry (MS) analytical method has been developed to simultaneously separate and identify seventeen main constituents of Chuanxiong (Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.), a traditional Chinese medicinal herb. In three Chuanxiong samples, nine compounds were unequivocally determined as vanillin (1), ferulic acid (2), senkyunolide I (4), senkyunolide H (5), senkyunolide A (6), coniferyl ferulate (7), Z-ligustilide (8), neocnidilide (9) and 3-butylidenephthalide (10) by comparing their tR, UV, and MS data with those obtained for the authentic compounds. Furthermore, additional eight compounds were tentatively identified as senkyunolide J (11), senkyunolide F (12), 3-butylphthalide (13), cnidilide (14), riligustilide (15) or Z,Z′-6,8′,7,3′-diligustilide (16), tokinolide B (17), levistolide A (18) and senkyunolide P (19), based on their MS data and the comparison of their UV spectra with the published references. This is the first report to describe the development of an on-line HPLC-DAD-MS method to simultaneously analyse seventeen main constituents present in Chuanxiong and to construct the chemical profiles of various Chuanxiong samples.

Key words

HPLC-DAD-MS - Chuanxiong - phthalides - Ligusticum chuanxiong - Umbelliferae

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Prof. Dr. Ge Lin

Department of Pharmacology

Faculty of Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Shatin, N. T.

Hong Kong SAR

Phone: +852-2609-6824

Fax: +852-2603-5139

Email: linge@cuhk.edu.hk