Fingerprint analysis and quantitative determination of 16 constituents of Antike capsule by high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection

In this study, a novel, convenient, accurate, and valid method was developed by using high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection to obtain a chromatographic fingerprint of Antike capsule (AC). Using computer aided similarity evaluation software, 28 characteristic peaks in chromatograms of 10 batches of analyzed samples were screened out and traced to the source of original materials, toad skin and angelica, in which 16 of the peaks were identified as gamabufotalin, arenobufagin, telocinobufagin, desacetylcinobufotalin, bufotalin, cinobufotalin, bufalin, cinobufagin, resibufogenin, ferulic acid, n-butylidenephthalide, senkyunolide A, senkyunolide I, senkyunolide H, ligustilide, and coniferylferulate. At the same time, the fingerprint similarity was calculated and the contents of known ingredients were also determined simultaneously. This method demonstrated good precision, reproducibility, and stability (relative standard deviation [RSD] of relative retention time [RRT] < 2.0% and RSD of relative peak area [RPA] < 5.0%). Good linear behaviors over the investigated concentration ranges were observed for all the analytes (r(2) > 0.9994), and the recoveries and RSD varied from 96.35% to 102.43% and 0.48% to 1.98%, respectively. The proposed method enabled fingerprint analysis and simultaneous identification and determination of 16 constituents in a single run. In addition, it provides a significant reference for the quality control of AC.