Simultaneous Determination of 17 Constituents of Chinese Wild Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza from Different Geographical Areas by Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

Background and Objective: Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza (RSM) has been used clinically for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases; therefore, it is important to strengthen its quality management. Considering multiple constituents when assessing RSM quality is essential. We established a simple, rapid method to identify and quantify the major bioactive constituents in RSM using ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to a triple quadruple mass spectrometry (QqQ-MS). Methods: We analyzed 17 markers from 50 batches of wild S. miltiorrhiza samples that were collected from different locations in China. The ultrasonic extracts of all samples were determined using the UPLC-QqQ-MS method and were assessed by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Results: We used this method to analyze 50 sample batches of the 17 compounds and obtained results with excellent linearity (R2, 0.9915-0.9997), precision (relative standard deviation, RSD, 0.15-1.94%), repeatability (RSD, 1.28-4.71%), stability (RSD, 0.97-5.60%) and recovery (RSD, 0.305-6.40%). The hierarchical cluster analysis was used to classify the 50 samples based on the characteristics of the 17 compound markers. Conclusion: We demonstrated that the developed method was simple, reproducible and sensitive, and it is capable of systematic and scientific evaluation for quality control of RSM. The HCA clearly demonstated that the RSM samples from different locations were significantly different and the quality of wild Radix S. miltiorrhiza could generally be judged according to its geographical origin.