Rapid and sensitive quantitation of major constituents in Danggui Buxue Tang by ultra-fast HPLC–TOF/MS

A quantitative method by ultra-fast HPLC coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF/MS) has been developed for analysis of 15 major constituents in Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT) preparations. Its performance was compared with a conventional HPLC method with diode array detection/evaporative light scattering detection (DAD/ESLD). Accurate mass measurements within 3 ppm error were obtained for all the compounds. The analytical time by an ultra-fast system is 4 times faster than conventional HPLC, the limits of detection by TOF/MS are low to 0.004–0.08 ng compared with 1–200 ng for HPLC–DAD–ELSD, and acceptable linearity of response was demonstrated over two orders of magnitude (r2 > 0.99) for all analytes. Intra-day reproducibility was below 3% and inter-day values were below 5% R.S.D. Robustness and applicability of the method was validated for the analysis of market DBT real samples, proposing a rapid, sensitive and validated method for routine analysis and quality control of DBT.