Simultaneous Determination of Flavonoids from Bamboo Leaf Extracts Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

An analytical method for the simultaneous determination of ten major functional flavonoids (isoorientin, orientin, vitexin, isovitexin, apigenin, luteolin, tricin, quercetin, rutin, and kaempferol) in different bamboo species was developed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Chromatographic separation was carried out on a reversed-phase C-18 column with acetonitrile and water as the mobile phases. Detection was performed in negative ion electrospray ionization mode using multiple reaction monitoring mode. The correlation coefficients for the calibration curves ranged from 0.9955 to 0.9997. The limit of detection ranged from 1 to 45 ng/ml. The applicability of this analytical approach was confirmed by the successful analysis of real leaf samples of four bamboo species, family Poaceae: Pleioblastus amarus (Keng) Keng f., Phyllostachys glauca McClure, Phyllostachys edullis (Carrière) J.Houz, and Indocalamus latifolius (Keng) McClure. The total flavonoid contents were 3321.09, 3095.96, 4037.33, and 2808.42 mg/kg for P. amarus, P. glauca, P. edullis, and I. latifolius, respectively. Graphical abstract