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Analytical methods using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array and tandem mass spectrometry detection were developed for the discrimination of the rhizomes of four Atractylodes medicinal plants: A. japonica, A. macrocephala, A. chinensis, and A. lancea. A quantitative study was performed, selecting five bioactive components, including atractylenolide I, II, III, eudesma-4(14),7(11)-dien-8-one and atractylodin, on twenty-six Atractylodes samples of various origins. Sample extraction was optimized to sonication with 80% methanol for 40 min at room temperature. High-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection was established using a C18 column with a water/acetonitrile gradient system at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, and the detection wavelength was set at 236 nm. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry was applied to certify the reliability of the quantitative results. The developed methods were validated by ensuring specificity, linearity, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision, recovery, robustness, and stability. Results showed that cangzhu contained higher amounts of atractylenolide I and atractylodin than baizhu, and especially atractylodin contents showed the greatest variation between baizhu and cangzhu. Multivariate statistical analysis, such as principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, were also employed for further classification of the Atractylodes plants. The established method was suitable for quality control of the Atractylodes plants.

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A simple HPLC-DAD method was developed and validated to determine B group vitamin content (thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine and folic acid) in supplemented food samples, i.e., infant formula, cereal, low-calorie food, a multi-vitamin pill and a vitamin drink. In this study, the most significant advantages were simultaneous determination of the six B group vitamins in various food matrices and a small number of sample treatment steps that required only an organic solvent, acetonitrile. Moreover, this method prevents reduction of column durability, because the mobile phase does not contain ion-pairing reagents. Analytes were separated on a Develosil RPAQUEOUS C 30 (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 µm particle size) column with a gradient elution of acetonitrile and 20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 3.0) at a flow rate between 0.8 and 1.0 mL/min. Detection was performed at 275 nm, except for that of pantothenic acid (205 nm). The calibration curves for all six vitamins showed good linearity with correlation coefficients (r 2 ) higher than 0.995. The developed method was validated with respect to linearity, intra-and inter-day accuracy and precision, limit of quantification (LOQ), recovery and stability. The method showed good precision and accuracy, with intra-and inter-assay coefficients of variation less than 15% at all concentrations. The recovery was carried out according to the standard addition procedure, with yields ranging from 89.8 to 104.4%. This method was successfully applied to the determination of vitamin B groups in supplemented food products.