Abstract: A cost effective, simple, precise and accurate ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method was established and validated for simultaneous determination of 20 ginsenosides in various processed ginseng products, including Rg1, Re, Rf, 20(S)-Rg2, 20(R)-Rg2, Rb1, Rc, Ra1, Rb2, Rb3, Rd, Rk3, F2, 20(S)-Rg3, 20(R)-Rg3, compound K (CK), Rg5, 20(S)-Rh2, 20(R)-Rh2 and protopanaxadiol (PPD). The developed method was carried out on a Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 1.7 μm) using a photodiode array detector (PDA). Good chromatographic separation was performed using a mixture of acetonitrile (B) and water (A) as the mobile phase with gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min and column temperature of 30 ℃ within 31 min. The method was well validated with respect to linearity (R2 > 0.998), precision (intra-day RSD ≤ 4.65% and inter-day RSD ≤ 4.88%) and accuracy (recovery rate between 85.71% and 108.50%), and the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were in the range of 0.81–3.10 μg/mL and 2.88–10.00 μg/mL, respectively. This method was rapid and reliable and was successfully used for the analysis of various processed ginseng products, including freshly stored ginseng, red ginseng and white ginseng and the results revealed significant variations in the ginsenoside levels. This method can be suitable for the analysis of active compounds and the quality control of fresh and processed ginseng.

Key words: ginseng products, ginsenosides, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography, simultaneous determination, quality control