A method using high-performance liquid chromatography for the simultaneous determination of seven principal constituents including xanthoxylol, kakuol, methyleugenol,l-sesamin, safrole, sarisan, and l-asarinin in Asari Radix et Rhizoma （Xixin in Chinese） was developed. Fifty five samples of Asari Radix et Rhizoma from different sources （35 samples from Asarum heterotropoides var. mandshuricum, 3 samples from Asarum sieboldii var. seoulense, and 17 samples from Asarum sieboldii） were analyzed with this method. Chromatographic separation was achieved on an Agilent Zorbax SB-C18 column （4.6 mm×25 cm, 5 μm） using a gradient elution with mobile phase of aqueous （A） and acetonitrile （B）. The assay was carried out at 20 ℃ and with detection at 287 nm. All calibration curves showed good linearity （r2〉0.999） within the tested ranges. The average recoveries were in the range of 96.0%-103.1% with relative standard deviation （RSD） less than 2.54%. The developed method was accurate with high sensitivity and good reproducibility. The content of volatile methyleugenol in LiaoXixin （the root and rhizome ofA. heterotropoides var. mandshuricum and A. sieboldii var. seoulense） was （6.17±5.13） rag/g, which was higher than （0.58±0.40） mg/g in HuaXixin （the root and rhizome ofA. sieboldii）. The toxic safrole in LiaoXixin was （2.66±2.16） mg/g, which was lower than （6.44±3.89） mg/g in HuaXixin. This is the first report on the simultaneous and quantitative determination of anthoxylol and sarisan in Asari Radix et Rhizoma.
Chen Cao Jingzhe Wang Lu Wang Mingying Shang Guangxue Liu Feng Xu Xuan Wang Shaoqing Cai
