Simultaneous determination of 13 bioactive compounds in Herba Artemisiae Scopariae (Yin Chen) from different harvest seasons by HPLC-DAD.

Herba Artemisiae Scopariae is a Chinese herbal medicine widely used for the remedy of liver diseases. A high performance liquid chromatography method coupled with diode array detection was developed to simultaneously determine 13 different bioactive compounds in Herba Artemisiae Scopariae (Yin Chen) including chlorogenic acid (1), 6,7-dihydroxycoumarin (2), caffeic acid (3), 4-hydroxyacetophenone (4), scopoletin (5), rutin (6), hyperoside (7), isoquercitrin (8), scoparone (11), 7-methoxycoumarine (12) and quercetin (13). By using four different wavelengths in the HPLC analysis, the developed method was able to determine the bioactive compounds with excellent resolution, precision and recovery. The method was applied to determine the amounts of the bioactive compounds in nine samples from different cultivated regions and harvest seasons in China, and significant variations were revealed. Chlorogenic acid was the most abundant among the analyzed compounds. The samples harvested in the spring contained higher contents of chlorogenic acid than those collected in other seasons. Other phenolic acids as caffeic acid, 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid and 4-hydroxyacetophenone accumulated at much higher amounts in about May to July. The samples analyzed contained a much lower level of the amount of other flavonoids and coumarins as rutin, hyperoside, isoquercitrin and scoparone.