Determination of Sedative Component in Chinese Medicines by High Resolution Chromatography-Electron Impact-Mass Spectrometry

The sedative compounds in two traditional Chinese medicines were studied. These compounds are present in the medicinal herbs “Zao Ren” and “Lu Lu Tong”. The samples were first extracted by ethanol and pre-treated by ultrasonic wave, and then they were separated and qualitatively analyzed by high-resolution GC-EI-MS and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) systems. We have found that the Chinese herb medicines “Zao Ren” contained clonazepam (120 ppm), whereas “Lu Lu Tong” Chinese drug contained estazolam (270 ppm). The Analytical measurements were done by using three different diagnostic indices using the GC-retention time of the GC-EI-MS total-ionchromatogram; single stage EI-MS analysis identification and from the measurements of the retention time in the HPLC.