Simultaneous determination of multiple components in Farfarae Flos by UHPLC-DAD and its application in quality control of decoction pieces

Abstract

Farfarae Flos is a frequently used traditional herbal medicine, with outstanding antitussive, anti-asthmatic and expectorant effects. The current quality standard cannot effectively evaluate the quality of decoction pieces, or reflect the quality difference between medicinal parts and impurities. Herein, a simple, rapid, and accurate ultra high-performance liquid-chromatography diode-array (UHPLC-DAD) method was established for the simultaneous determination of 14 components in Farfarae Flos within 15 minutes. Different parts of the plant (flower bud, corolla, pedicel and stem) of 20 batches of decoction pieces were determined by the established method. Chemometrics was applied to assess the proposed method and analyze the quantitative results. Principal component analysis showed that the phenolic acids, flavonoids and terpenoids were effective quality control markers for Farfarae Flos. The quality of traditional medicinal part (flower bud) was significantly different from that of impurities (pedicel and stem). ANOVA showed that the content of phenolic acids in the pedicel and stem was significantly higher than that in the flower bud, while the content of flavonoids in the pedicel and stem was significantly lower than that in the flower bud. This study provides an efficient and low-cost methodology with adequate sensitivity for the quality control of Farfarae Flos decoction pieces. Graphical Abstract