Quality evaluation of the artemisinin-producing plant Artemisia annua L. based on simultaneous quantification of artemisinin and six synergistic components and hierarchical cluster analysis

Artemisia annua L. (A. annua) is one of the most widely used traditional Chinese Medicine, and is also an exclusive natural origin of artemisinin for the industrial production. Several sesquiterpenes, flavonoids and coumarin contained in A. annua could enhance the pharmacological effects of artemisinin. However, the contents of these components vary significantly in different places of origin and different parts of A. annua. To evaluate and differentiate its quality, an accurate and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric (HPLC–MS/MS) assay has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of artemisinin and six synergistic components in A. annua. The run time of analyzing one sample is only 6.0 min. The established method could serve as an accurate and rapid assay for the quality evaluation of A. annua from different places of origin and different parts of the plant. The hierarchical cluster analysis results indicated that the content of scopoletin and/or all seven components (artemisinin and six synergistic components) might be utilized to differentiate different parts and different plucking times of A. annua.