A Fast and Efficient UPLC‐ESI‐MS/MS Method for Detection, Identification, and Quantitative Analysis of Bioactive Substances in Medicinal Herbal Extracts of Preventing Hair Loss

A rapid, sensitive, and selective method involving ultraperformance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was developed for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the constituents in a medicinal herbal complex extract (MHCE). The MHCE was obtained from 23 herbs traditionally used in oriental medicines that we have been developed as new therapeutic materials to prevent hair loss and enhance hair growth. The chromatographic analysis of the samples of MHCE was performed on a reversed-phase C-18 (10 cm x 2.1 mm, flow rate 0.3 mL/min) column with gradient elution using acetonitrile and water with 0.1% formic acid. Mass spectrometry was performed in the positive ESI mode. The bioactive compounds were detected by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) with UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. All calibration curves of reference compounds showed good linearity (r(2) > 0.9964) in the test ranges. The limit of detection and limit of quantification of the method were 0.02 ng/mL and 0.05 ng/mL, respectively.