Determination of artemisinin, arteannuin B and artemisinic acid in Herba Artemisiae Annuae by HPLC-UV-ELSD

To establish an HPLC-UV-ELSD method for the determination of the content of artemisinin, arteannuin B and artemisinic acid in Herba Artemisiae Annuae. The analytical column was Nucleodur RP-C₁₈ (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm ID). The mobile phase was acetonirile-0.1% acetic acid (50∶50) and the flow rate was 1.0 mL·min^-1 with a UV detector for artemisinin, the detection wavelength at 209 nm, and the evaporative light-scattering detector (ELSD) for arteannuin B and artemisinic acid, the drift tube temperature: 50 ℃,the nitrogen flow rate 30 psi and the gain was 50. The resolution of artemisinin, arteannuin B and artemisinic acid was good. The linear calibration curves were obtained over the range of 0.52-2.6 μg for artemisinin (r=0.999 4, n=5), 0.022-4.4 μg for artemisinin B (r=0.999 9, n=5) and 0.203-8.12 μg for artemisinic acid (r=0.999 8, n=5), separately. The mean recoveries of the three compounds were 99.45%, 102.37% and 101.10% with RSD of 2.3%, 1.7% and 0.79%, respectively. This method is simple, rapid, accurate and suitable for the determination of the content of the three compounds in the herbs.