Identification and discrimination of three common Aloe species by high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry coupled with multivariate analysis

• A simultaneous analytical method was developed to discriminate Aloe arborescens, Aloe barbadensis and Aloe ferox.
• HPLC–MS/MS and HPLC-DAD were applied to qualitative and quantitative determination of eight maker compounds.
• The extraction conditions were optimized by response surface methodology.
• A partial least squares-discriminant analysis was used to identify the three aloe species.
• Characteristic compounds for identification of aloe species were revealed between three aloes.

Aloe arborescens, Aloe barbadensis and Aloe ferox are the most widely cultivated and used among 500 aloe species due to their potent bioactivity. However, the difference of aloe species is neglected and labeled only one name Aloe in the market without specifying aloe species discrimination in general. Furthermore, differences in bioactivity and side effects from different aloe species have not been well investigated. This study develops an effective method for simultaneous qualitative and quantitative determination of three common aloe species using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) and high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The extraction conditions were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) based on methanol concentration, extraction time and solvent-to-material ratio. A partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used to identify the three aloe species. The developed HPLC–MS/MS method coupled with multivariate analysis can be applied to discriminate three aloe species successfully.