Aim To establish a reversed phase liquid chromatographic method forsimultaneous determination of three main medicinal constituents, baicalin, berberine and rhein, inSanhuang tablets. Methods The separation was performed on a Kromasil C_(18) column with TEA-adjusted0.02 mol·L^(-1) H_3PO_4 (pH 6.78)-acetonitrile-methanol (40 : 9 : 7) as mobile phase at aflow-rate of 1.0 mL·min^(-1), with detection at 254 ran. Considering interaction between acidic andalkaline compounds, three standard markers were added respectively and the volume of samplesolution was doubled in recovery experiments. Results Three regression equations revealed excellentlinear relationship between the peak areas and concentrations and the correlation coefficients allsurpassed 0.999 8. The average recovery was 96.1% (RSD = 2.1%) baicalin, 98.5% (RSD = 2.4%) forberberine, and 101.5% (RSD =1.3%) for rhein. Conclusion The method developed can be used to controlthe quality of Sanhuang tablets comprehensively.
