Identification and simultaneous determination of glycyrrhizin, formononetin, glycyrrhetinic acid, liquiritin, isoliquiritigenin, and licochalcone A in licorice by LC-MS/MS

A new liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of glycyrrhizin, formononetin, glycyrrhetinic acid, liquiritin, isoliquiritigenin, and licochalcone A in licorice. An Eclipse Plus C18 column (I.D. 4.6 × 100 mm, 3.5 μm particle size; Agilent) was used in the analysis. Electrospray ionization (ESI)-tandem interface in the negative mode was performed, and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) was employed with the precursor multiple reaction monitoring production combination for the determination of six analytes. The average recoveries ranged from 98.30% to 100.13% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) ≤ 1.95%, and limits of detection (LODs) ranged from 2.1 to 3.6 pg. The applicability of this analytical approach was confirmed by the successful analysis of six samples. The results indicated that the established method was validated, sensitive, and reliable for the determination of six analytes in licorice.