Qualitative analysis of Psoraleae Fructus by HPLC-DAD/TOF-MS fingerprint and quantitative analysis of multiple components by single marker.

A variety of bioactive substances may account for the recognized efficacy and wide clinical application of Psoraleae Fructus in China. A high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) fingerprint method was developed to present the comprehensive phytochemical profile of the crude drug. Thirteen major compounds were separated and identified by HPLC coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC/TOF-MS), namely psoralenoside (PO), isopsoralenoside (IPO), psoralen (PS), isopsoralen (IPS), neobavaisoflavone (NBF), bavachin (BC), corylin (CN), bavachromene (BCM), psoralidin (PD), isobavachalcone (IBC), bacachinin (BCN), corylifol A (CA) and bakuchiol (BK). Then quantitative analysis of multiple components by single marker (QAMS) was applied in content determination of PO, IPO, PS, IPS, BC, IBC, BCN, CA and BK, with NBF as the internal standard. The calculation results indicated no significant difference from the traditional external standard method (p > 0.05, RSD < 2.62%), suggesting that QAMS is a reliable and convenient method for content determination of multiple chemical compositions, especially when there is a shortage of reference substances. In conclusion, simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of Psoraleae Fructus may be fulfilled through the newly proposed method of QAMS combined with HPLC-DAD/TOF-MS fingerprint.