Qualitative and quantitative analyses of three bioactive compounds in different parts of Forsythia suspensa by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

A high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) analytical method was developed to simultaneously detect and quantify three main distinctive compounds (forsythiaside, rutin and forsythin) in different parts of Forsythia suspensa (F. suspensa), an herbal medicine. This was the first report on the quantification of bioactive constituents in different parts of F. suspensa by HPLC-ESI-MS analytical method. The calibration curves of the three compounds showed good linearity (R2 > 0.9994). The method was reproducible with intra- and inter-day variation less than 1.35% and 2.00%, respectively. The recovery of the assay was in the range of 98.27–101.07%. The results indicated that the developed assay could be considered as a suitable quality control method for this commonly used herbal medicine.