Simultaneous Determination of Eight Constituents in Fruits of Rubus chingii by UPLC

ObjectiveTo develop a simple, efficient, and reliable method for routine quantitative analysis of main constituents presented in the fruits of Rubus chingii, which is widely used in Chinese materia medica (CMM), known as Fupenzi (FPZ) in Chinese.MethodsAn ultra performance liquid chromatography-photo diode array (UPLC-PDA) system was employed for simultaneous quantification of eight compounds, i. e. adenosine, gallic acid, brevifolin carboxylic acid, ethyl gallate, ellagic acid, kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside, kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, and tiliroside. The chromatographic analysis was performed on a C18 column using a gradient elution of acetonitrile −0.1% formic acid aqueous solution within a runtime of 25 min.ResultsAll calibration curves were linear (R2 > 0.9997) over the tested ranges. The intra- and inter-day precisions as determined from sample solutions were both less than 2.45% and 2.78%, respectively. The average recoveries for the eight constituents ranged from 94.77% to 101.35% with RSD ≤ 4.41%. The newly-developed method was applied to the quality assessment of various R. chingii samples, including both ripe and unripe fruits of R. chingii from different habitats.ConclusionThe relative levels of the investigated compounds vary remarkably in the fruits of R. chingii collected from different habitats. As only two of the eight compounds, adenosine and ellagic acid, are determined in the ripe fruits of R. chingii, the results may explain the reason why only the unripe fruits can be used in CMM.