Objective: To establish a method for the determination of the content of 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→3)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin(saponins X)

3-O-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin(saponins B)

3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-arabinopyranosyl hederagenin(saponins PD)

3-O-α-L-arabinopyranoside hederagenin(saponins A) in Akebiae Fructus using high-performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD). Method: The separation of A. Fructus was performed on an Agilent 1100 manual high performance liquid chromatograph

Cosmosil-C18 ODSchromatography column (4.6 mm×250 mm

5 μm). The mobile phase was acetonitrile-water and the flow rate was 1.0 mL·min-1. The detector was ELSD. The temperature of drift tube was 98 ℃. And the nebulizer nitrogen flow rate was 2.8 L·min. Result: The linear range of saponin X

saponin B

saponins PD

saponin A was 2-10 μg (R2 was 0.999 0

0.999 0

0.999 1

0.999 1

respectively)

and the average recovery (n=6) was 96.8%

101.9%

99.3%

100.5%

respectively; and RSD was 0.9%

1.2%

0.7%

1.3%

respectively. Conclusion: The method is simple

reliable and accurate. It can be used to determine saponins X

saponins B

saponins PD

saponins A content and control the quality in Akebiae Fructus.