Simultaneous determination of triptolide, tripterifordin, celastrol and nine sesquiterpene alkaloids in Tripterygium preparations using high-performance liquid chromatography–triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

Tripterygium wilfordii tablet (TWT) and Tripterygium hypoglaucum tablet (THT), the preparations of the two Tripterygium herbs, are well known for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other related inflammatory diseases clinically. In the present study, a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (QQQ/MS) method was developed for simultaneous quantification of 12 chemical components in Tripterygium preparations. The fragmentation patterns of analytes using ESI and collision-induced dissociation (CID) techniques were reported. This assay method was validated with respect to linearity (r2 > 0.9991), precision, repeatability, and accuracy (recovery rate between 97.2 and 104.2%). The proposed method was successfully applied for simultaneous quantification of the 12 compounds in Tripterygium preparations from the different manufactures. In addition, to evaluate the quality of Tripterygium preparations, partial least square discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) was performed to differentiate the contents of 12 compounds. In conclusion, the established HPLC/QQQ/MS method was proven to be useful and efficient for quality control of Tripterygium preparations.