A New Strategy of Overcoming both Matrix Effect and Shortage of Reference Standards for Determination of Multi-components in the Rhizomes of Alpinia officinarum Hance Using UHPLC-MS/MS with Single Exogenous Internal Standard

Alpinia officinarum Hance is a medicine and food dual purposes plant. Its rhizomes have been widely used as food and medicine in Asia, Africa, and Europe for high dietary values and therapeutic benefits. Phytochemical studies showed that flavonoids and diarylheptanoids are two groups of characteristic and bioactive components in the rhizomes of A. officinarum. However, comprehensive quality assessment of the rhizomes of A. officinarum is usually ignored for the shortages of reference standards of bioactive constituents. In this work, a new strategy of using curcumin-d6 as single exogenous internal standard was developed to overcome both matrix effect and shortage of reference standards for determination of seven quality markers (galangin, kaempferol, kaempferide, rac-pinocembrin, pinobanksin, dihydroyashabushiketol, 1,7-diphenyl-4-en-3-heptanone) in the rhizome of A. officinarum based on UHPLC-MS/MS method. Chromatographic separation was carried out on a C18 reverse-phase column with gradient elution. Mass spectrometric detection was accomplished using multiple-reaction-monitoring mode. The method developed was fully validated in terms of LOD, LOQ, linearity, precision, accuracy, and stability, and the results obtained by the method new developed were also compared with those obtained by conventional external standard method. Finally, the new developed analytical strategy was successfully applied to determine seven Q-markers in fifteen batches of rhizomes of A. officinarum. The newly developed method was useful for quality assessment of the rhizomes of A. officinarum.