An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of six major bioactive compounds in five varieties of Withania somnifera in various plant parts (leaf, stem and root). The analysis was accomplished on Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column with linear gradient elution of water/formic acid (0.1%) and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.3mLmin(-1). The proposed method was validated with acceptable linearity (r(2), 0.9989-0.9998), precision (RSD, 0.16-2.01%), stability (RSD, 1.04-1.62%) and recovery (RSD ≤2.45%), under optimum conditions. The method was also successfully applied for the simultaneous determination of six marker compounds in twenty-six marketed formulations. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were applied to discriminate these twenty-six batches based on characteristics of the bioactive compounds. The results indicated that this method is advance, rapid, sensitive and suitable to reveal the quality of Withania somnifera and also capable of performing quality evaluation of polyherbal formulations having similar markers/raw herbs.
Keywords: Hierarchical cluster analysis; Marker quantification; Marketed formulation; Multiple reaction monitoring; Principal component analysis; UHPLC–ESI-MS/MS.
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