Objective: To establish a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for simultaneous determination of the contents of gallic acid, propyl gallate and naringenin in Paeoniae Rubrathe Radix. Methods: The analysis of three compounds was performed on a 30 ℃ thermostatic ODS-C18 HPLC column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5μm), with the mobile phase comprising of methanol-0.1% acetic acid flowing at 1.0 mL/min in a gradient elution manner. And the detection wavelength was set at 270 nm. Results: For three compounds, gallic acid, propyl gallate, and naringenin, good linear relationship could be obtained within the concentration ranges of 5-250 μg/mL (R2>0.999), respectively. Results also indicated the good precision of the analytical method and good accuracy within the optimal recovery range. It was shown that 1 g of the raw material of Paeoniae Rubrathe Radix contained 1.867 mg of gallic acid, 0.561 mg of propyl gallate, and 0.093 mg of naringenin, respectively. Conclusion: This method was able to accurately determine the contents of three active compounds in Paeoniae Rubrathe Radix, and could be used for the quality control of Paeoniae Rubrathe Radix.
