Simultaneous determination of six active components in crude and processed Fructus Corni by high performance liquid chromatography

A simple and rapid HPLC method was established for simultaneously determining six active components in Fructus Corni. The six components were separated on an Agilent Zorbax Extend C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) and detected by diode array detector (DAD). Mobile phase was composed of (A) aqueous phosphoric acid (0.1%, v/v) and (B) acetonitrile phosphoric acid (0.1%, v/v) using a gradient elution. Analyses were performed at 30 °C with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and UV detection at 218 nm, 240 nm and 284 nm. All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r2 ≥ 0.9999) within tested ranges. The LOD and LOQ were 0.11–1.69 μg/mL and 1.48–16.60 μg/mL, respectively. Overall intra-day and inter-day variations were less than 4.72%, and the average recoveries were 97.97–102.51% for the analytes. The developed method can be applied to the intrinsic quality control of Fructus Corni.