A rapid and sensitive ultra-performance liquid chromatography photodiode array detection tandem mass spectrometric method (UPLC-PDA-MS-MS) was developed and validated to simultaneously determine seven major bioactive constituents in the formula of traditional Chinese medicines Xiaochaihutang (XCHT). To investigate the discipline of compatibility in XCHT, 14 kinds of compatibilities designed by orthogonal array were also analyzed. The separation was performed on an ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH C18 column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 µm) using gradient elution with a mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Two detection techniques of PDA detector and MS-MS detector were proposed, respectively. The concentrations of baicalin and wogonoside were high enough for PDA detection while low-concentration bioactive constituents including saikosaponin a, ginsenoside Rg1, liquiritin, baicalein and wogonin were quantified by MS-MS detection. The proposed method was fully validated in terms of sensitivity, linearity, specificity, precision, repeatability and recovery. This is the first report on the simultaneous determination of the major bioactive constituents of XCHT by UPLC-PDA-MS-MS, which could be used to evaluate the quality of XCHT and to investigate the discipline of compatibility in XCHT.
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