In the present paper, an LC–DAD
method combined with MAE has been
developed for the quantitative determination
of three major triterpene saponins
asiatic acid, asiaticoside and madecassoside
(Fig. 1) in the crude extract of
C. asiatica. ESI–MSn coupled with LC
has also been applied to the identification
of individual triterpene saponins
in C. asiatica extracts. Moreover, thesamples were also analyzed on a liquid
chromatography–electrospray ionization–
time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC–
ESI–TOF–MS) system to confirm the
identification results.