Rapid determination of panaxynol in a traditional Chinese medicine of Saposhnikovia divaricata by pressurized hot water extraction followed by liquid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Panaxynol is a bioactive component in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), such as Saposhnikovia divaricata and Panax ginseng. In the work, two solvent-free sample techniques of pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) and headspace liquid-phase microextraction (HS-LPME) were combined and developed for the determination of panaxynol in a TCM of S. divaricata. Panaxynol in the TCM samples from different growing areas was extracted by PHWE in dynamic mode, followed by extraction and concentration with HS-LPME and analysis with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The PHWE and HS-LPME parameters were optimized and the method validations were studied. Panaxynol in S. divaricata from four different growing areas was quantitatively analyzed by internal standard method. These results have shown that PHWE-LPME-GC–MS is a simple, rapid, efficient and low-cost method for the determination of panaxynol in TCMs and is a potential tool for TCM quality assessment.