Multiple Analysis Platform for Chinese Herbal Medicine (III) HPLC/ELSD analysis system

As previously described, HPLC is widely used for the quality analysis in pharmaceutical companies. In this Multiple Analysis Platform for Chinese Herbal Medicine (MAPCHM), HPLC acts the important role in multiple components (small-molecule organic compounds) analysis of Chinese herbal medicines. In general, the most common used for analysis of small-molecule organic compounds is HPLC coupled with Photodiode Array (PDA) detector because of the chemical and physical properties of small-molecule organic compounds, such as electron resonance and ultraviolet absorption. However, there are still some small-molecule organic compounds can not be detected by HPLC/PDA due to the structure properties, while the HPLC coupled with Evaporative Light Scattering Detection (ELSD) detector is the powerful tool for such kinds of compounds. For example, astragaloside Ⅳ is recorded as the active component in Radix Astragali, but however, astragaloside Ⅳ can only be analyzed by HPLC/ELSD, instead of HPLC/PDA. Guiding into the concept of MAPCHM, carbohydrates, especially for glucose, sucrose and fructose are also important roles in the function of Chinese herbal medicines. For example, the carbohydrates profiles between raw Radix Glycyrrhizae and honey-processed Radix Glycyrrhizae are totally different by HPLC/ELSD analysis. Carbohydrates profiles between Ge-Gen-Tang, Chia-Wei-Hsiao-Yao-San and Xiao-Qing-Long-Tang, etc. are also varied a lot because of different herbal compositions. Through the HPLC/ELSD analysis system, we can monitor the other types of active components which can not be detected by the common PDA detector.