Rapid determination of paeonol in traditional Chinese medicinal preparations by microwave-assisted extraction followed by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) followed by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was developed for rapid determination of paeonol in four traditional Chinese medicinal preparations (TCMPs) including Liuwen Dihuang pills, Maiwei Dihuang pills, Guifu Dihuang pills, and Zhibai Dihuang pills. The optimal MAE conditions obtained were: microwave power of 540 W and irradiation time of 4 min, and HS-SPME optimal conditions were: fiber coating of 65 μm PDMS/DVB, extraction temperature of 70°C, extraction time of 10 min, stirring rate of 1100 rpm, and NaCl concentration 30%. The optimized method provided satisfactory precision (RSD 6.5%), good linearity (R ₂ > 0.997) and recovery (90%). The results showed that MAE-HS-SPME-GC-MS is a simple, rapid, efficient, and solvent-free technique for the quantitative determination of paeonol in TCMPs.