Ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid-based homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of tanshinones in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. root

• Ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid-based homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction was first developed.
• Four tanshinones in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. root were extracted and determined.
• Volatile organic solvent are not used and ionic liquid was used as extraction solvent.
• Compared with other methods, shorter time, less solvent and sample were used.

The ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid-based homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction has been developed and applied to the extraction of four tanshinones, including dihydrotanshinone, tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone and tanshinone IIA in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. root. High performance liquid chromatography was applied to the separation and determination of the analytes. The ionic liquid was used as extraction solvent and target analytes were extracted with help of ultrasound. Then, ion-pairing agent was added into the sample solution, which resulted in the formation of water-insoluble ionic liquid in the solution. The phase separation was performed by centrifugation. The extraction, concentration and purification of target analytes were performed simultaneously. The experimental parameters, including type and volume of ionic liquid, sample amount, the size of sample particle, pH value of extraction medium, extraction temperature, extraction time, amount of ion-pairing agent and centrifuging time, were investigated and optimized. The calibration curves showed good linear relationship (r > 0.9997). The limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.052–0.093 and 0.17–0.31 μg mL−1, respectively. The recoveries were between 70.45% and 94.23% with relative standard deviations lower than 5.31%. The present method is free of volatile organic solvents, and represents lower expenditures of sample, extraction time and solvent, compared with UAE and HRE. There was no obvious difference in the extraction yields of active constitutions obtained by the three extraction methods.

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