Simultaneous determination of osthol, columbianadin, and isoimperatorin in Angelicae pubescentis Radix by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a quantitative analysis of multi-components by single marker (QAMS) calibration method.

The goal of this work was to establish a method to identify and quantify the primary active components in Angelicae pubescentis Radix quickly, simply, and accurately. This article first reported a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method that simultaneously determined and quantified osthol, isoimperatorin, and columbianadin using a quantitative analysis of multi-components by single marker (QAMS) method which uses internal reference substances and relative correction factors to perform the synchronous determination and quantitation of multiple components. Taking into account the price and availability of standard substances, osthol was selected to be the internal reference substance for analysis. The compatibility results showed that the relative correction factors of all compounds showed good reproducibility under different chromatographic conditions. In addition, the external standard method (ESM) and QAMS were used to determine and quantify the content of A. pubescentis Radix from nine distinct habitats and in a Chinese patent medicine. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the two methods. In summary, the proposed quantitative QAMS methodology is an alternative approach for the quality control of A. pubescentis Radix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]