Quantitative and structural analysis of amides and lignans in Zanthoxylum armatum by UPLC-DAD-ESI-QTOF–MS/MS

• Rapid and simultaneous quantification of lignans and amides is achieved by UPLC-DAD.
• Different plant parts (leaves, bark, seeds) showed significant variation.
• Tandem UPLC-DAD-ESI–MS/MS led to characterization of sixteen compounds.
• Structural analysis by MS/MS and UV spectra is also discussed.

A rapid and simple ultra performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (UPLC-DAD) method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of four biologically important furofuran lignans, asarinin, sesamin, fargesin and kobusin, and an amide, armatamide in Zanthoxylum armatum within 7 min. The separation was carried out on a BEH C18 column (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm particle size) with 0.05% formic acid aqueous solution and acetonitrile as mobile phase under gradient conditions at 25 °C. The method was validated and found to be linear (R2 ≥ 0.9997), precise in terms of peak areas (intra-day RSDs ≤ 0.62% and inter-day RSDs ≤ 2.95%) and accurate (95.6–104.0%). The developed method was applied to the quality assessment of different parts (leaves, bark and seeds) of Z. armatum including locational variation of leaves samples. Significant variation in the amount of amides and furofuran lignans was observed. Tandem electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry (UPLC-DAD-ESI–MS/MS) of samples led to the identification of sixteen compounds in the category of amides and furofuran lignans.

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