A rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the constituents of the flower of Trollius ledibouri Reichb.

A rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method was developed for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the constituents of the flower of Trollius ledibouri Reichb. The analysis was performed on an AcQuity UPLCtrade mark BEH C18 column using gradient elution with a mobile phase of 0.1% acetic acid and acetonitrile over 20 min. A tandem quadrupole spectrometer operating in either full scan mode or in MS/MS mode for multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) was used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the constituents, respectively. According to the mass spectrometric fragmentation mechanism and UPLC-ESI-MS/MS data, the chemical structures of 15 constituents of the flower of T. ledibouri Reichb. were identified on-line without time-consuming isolation and four of them, 2''-O-beta-L-galactopyranosylorientin, 2''-O-beta-arabinopyranosylorientin, orientin and vitexin, were quantified. The limits of quantification of these four flavonoids were 540, 321, 515 and 220 microg g(-1) plant material, respectively. Four commercial samples from different sources were analyzed. The UPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for analyzing the constituents can be used to evaluate the quality of the flower of T. ledibouri Reichb.