Objective: A method of high-performance liquid chromatography was developed to evaluate the quality of a traditional Chinese medicine Acorus tatarinowii through analyzing the content of β-asarone and α-asarone. Method: The conditions of sample preparation

chromatography column

detected wavelength and mobile phase were optimized. The linear ranges

precision

reproducibility

stability and accuracy of the method were evaluated based on a Shimadzu HPLC system. And six batches of A. tatarinowii were detected. Result: The determination was performed on a Kromasil C18 column at 257 nm wavelength.The mobile phase was isocratic elution of methanol-water(0.1% formic acid)(70:30). The flow rate was set at 1.0 mL·min-1

and column temperature was at 35 ℃.The regression equation of β-asarone was Y= 2×106X+205.93(r=0.999 9

0.026 96-539 2 μg)

and that of α-asarone was Y=6×106X-117.6 (r=0.999 9

0.016 04-0.320 8 μg); the RSDs of precision were 0.119% (β-asarone) and 0.116% (α-asarone); the RSDs of repeatability were 0.877% (β-asarone) and 0.815% (α-asarone); the RSDs of stability test within 20 hours at room temperature were 0.42% (β-asarone) and 0.25% (α-asarone); the average recovery of β-asarone was 97.7% (RSD 1.9% )

for α-asarone it was 102.3% (RSD 1.5%). The content of β-asarone and α-asarone in A. tatarinowii samples were in the range of 1.12%-3.51% and 0.03%-1.01%

respectively. Conclusion: This method is convenient

accurate and reliable

which can be applied to be a quality evaluation method for A. tatarinowii.