Chemical fingerprinting and quantitative analysis of a Panax notoginseng preparation using HPLC-UV and HPLC-MS

BACKGROUND: Xuesaitong (XST) injection, consisting of total saponins from Panax notoginseng, was widely used for the treatment of cardio- and cerebro-vascular diseases in China. This study develops a simple and global quality evaluation method for the quality control of XST. METHODS: High performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) was used to identify and quantify the chromatographic fingerprints of the XST injection. Characteristic common peaks were identified using HPLC with photo diode array detection/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-PDA/ESI-MS(n)). RESULTS: Representative fingerprints from ten batches of samples showed 27 'common saponins' all of which were identified and quantified using ten reference saponins. CONCLUSION: Chemical fingerprinting and quantitative analysis identified most of the common saponins for the quality control of P. notoginseng products such as the XST injection.