Determination of eight constituents of hsiao-cheng-chi-tang by high-performance liquid chromatography.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of eight constituents (gallic acid, sennoside B, sennoside A, naringin, hesperidin, honokiol, magnolol and emodin) of the Chinese herbal formula hsiao-cheng-chi-tang was established. Various samples of the formula were separated using a Cosmosil 5C18 column with a linear gradient elution system consisting of acetate buffer as mobile phase. Contents of these marker substances in an unpretreated hsiao-cheng-chi-tang extract could be easily determined within 60 min. The effects of pH, buffer concentration and column selectivity for this method are described.