Simultaneous determination of six α‑dicarbonyl compounds in traditional Chinese medicines using high‐performance liquid chromatography‐fluorescence detector with pre‐column derivatization

Abstract

A reliable method for determination of six α‐dicarbonyl compounds in traditional Chinese medicines was first developed and validated by high‐performance liquid chromatography‐fluorescence detector with pre‐column derivatization. α‐Dicarbonyl compounds in traditional Chinese medicines were extracted and derivatized with 2,3‐diaminaphthalene. The derivatization procedure of six α‐dicarbonyl compounds was confirmed by high‐resolution mass spectrometry. The limits of quantitation for six α‐dicarbonyl compounds ranged from 3.70 × 10−3 to 2.21 × 10−2 μM. The established method showed good linearity (regression coefficient > 0.9990), precision (relative standard deviation < 3.37%), and high recovery (97.8%∼113.1%). The developed method was successfully applied to detect the six α‐dicarbonyl compounds in traditional Chinese medicines. The result exhibited six α‐dicarbonyl compounds was found in the 15 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, which suggested us that the determination of α‐dicarbonyl compounds should be paid more attention in the quality control of traditional Chinese medicines.