Quality assessment of traditional herbal formula, Hyeonggaeyeongyo-tang through simultaneous determination of twenty marker components by HPLC–PDA and LC–MS/MS

Simultaneous analysis of 20 marker components (gallic acid, cimifugin, geniposide, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid, nodakenin, narirutin, naringin, neohesperidin, arctiin, baicalin, oxypeucedanin hydrate, wogonoside, baicalein, arctigenin, glycyrrhizin, wogonin, pulegone, decursin, and decursinol angelate) for quality assessment of the traditional herbal formula, Hyeonggaeyeongyo-tang (HYT) was carried out by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array detection (PDA) and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). The coefficient of determination showed excellent linearity of more than 0.9999 for all analytes. The recovery of 20 marker components was 93.92 to 102.66% with relative standard deviation (RSD) < 3.00% and RSD value of precision was ≤ 3.44%. The amounts of 20 marker components using HPLC–PDA and LC–MS/MS were determined to be 0.18–14.60 and 0.01–1.76 mg/freeze-dried g, respectively.