Quantitative analysis and chromatographic fingerprinting of the semen zizyphi spinosae by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detector.

A simple and sensitive method was developed and validated for fingerprint analysis of semen zizyphi spinosae (SZS) and simultaneous determination of six flavonoids in SZS by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode-array detector (DAD). The analysis was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse Plus C18 RRHD column. The column was maintained at 40°C and the eluents were monitored with DAD at 270 nm. A gradient elution of acetonitrile and water containing 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate was used. The solvent flow rate was 0.4 mL/min. The method was validated. Standard calibration curves showed good linear behaviors (r=1.000) in the range of 0.33-201.00 μg/mL. Acceptable intra-day precision (RSD<1.9%), inter-day precision (RSD<4.0%), repeatability (RSD<4.1%) and recovery in the range of 97.4-104% were obtained. The validated method was successfully applied to obtain the chromatographic fingerprints and the contents of six flavonoids in 23 samples of SZS. The principal component analysis (PCA) had been applied for the chromatographic fingerprint analysis and quantitative analysis of six flavonoids to classify and discriminate the 23 samples of SZS. These results demonstrated that the method was very suitable in the analysis and quality control of SZS.