Ginsenosides in Commercial Ginseng Products Analyzed by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Although the LC/MS-MS method has been developed to analyze ginsenosides in ginseng roots, this method has not yet been utilized to quantify ginsenosides in ginseng products. In this paper, an internal standard method by LC/MS-MS was developed to analyze the ginsenosides content in the commercial ginseng products such as the ginseng capsules. We compare the standard addition method and the internal standard methods for the quantification of several ginsenosides (e.g., Rb1, Rb2, Rb3, Rc, Rd, Re, Rg1, and Rg3) in five commercial ginseng capsules. The results showed that the internal standard method is as good as the standard addition method and is a less tedious approach.