Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: A simple, rapid and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been
developed for the first time to simultaneously determine the four major ingredients, namely gallic acid,
Albiflorin, paeoniflorin and ferulic acid, in an oral solution of Siwu Heji. The separation of these marker
compounds was achieved on an Extend-C18 column with gradient elution using acetonitrile and aqueous
phosphoric acid as the mobile phase. The assay was linear over the range (μg) 0.066-0.598 for gallic acid,
0.171-1.537 for Albiflorin, 0.220-1.982 for paeoniflorin and 0.010-0.091 for ferulic acid. The average sample
recovery (%) was 101.6, 100.2, 98.8 and 99.1 for these four constituents, respectively. The results
demonstrated variations in the content of each of the marker compounds in different lots, indicating that
careful quality control of the bioactive ingredients in Siwu Heji is necessary to ensure the uniformity of their
extraction procedures. This assay is suitable for the quality control of Siwu Heji.

Key words: Siwu Heji, gallic acid, albiforin, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid, HPLC