Phytochemical analysis and geographic assessment of flavonoids, coumarins and sesquiterpenes in Artemisia annua L. based on HPLC-DAD quantification and LC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS confirmation

To evaluate the quality of Artemisia annua L., an accurate HPLC-DAD method has been developed, validated and applied to the simultaneous quantification of five flavonoids, two coumarins and four sesquiterpenes. An LC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS confirmation method has been utilized to avoid false-positive results. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis results indicated that their contents had obvious regional characteristics. Samples with high contents of artemisinin (8.24 ± 2.92 mg/g) and isorhamnetin (0.28 ± 0.25 mg/g) are mainly distributed south of the Yangtze River, and samples with high contents of scopolin (0.46 ± 0.22 mg/g), scopoletin (1.05 ± 0.17 mg/g), chrysosplenol D (0.64 ± 0.14 mg/g), casticin (1.07 ± 0.23 mg/g), arteannuin B (0.69 ± 0.18 mg/g) and artemisinic acid (3.02 ± 1.00 mg/g) are mainly distributed in eastern and northern China. Geographic content differences of the components in A. annua indicate the potential differences in the health-promoting effects of its clinical application.