Identification of major constituents in the traditional Chinese medicine “QI-SHEN-YI-QI” dropping pill by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

An HPLC–DAD–ESI-MSn method was developed for simultaneous analysis of major chemical constituents in “QI-SHEN-YI-QI” dropping pill, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) widely used for treating cardiovascular diseases. The chromatographic separation was performed on an intertsil ODS-3 C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm), whilst water with 0.05% acetic acid and acetonitrile were used as mobile phase. On the basis of the characteristic UV absorption profile, the information of molecular weight, and structure provided by ESI-MSn, 31 constituents derived from Astragalus membranaceus, Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, and Panax notoginseng, were detected and 20 of them were identified in this study. The proposed method contributes to the quality control of “QI-SHEN-YI-QI” dropping pill.