OBJECTIVETo establish a new method using AOTF-Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for quick determination of tanshinone II(A) and salvianolic acid B in Fufang Danshen tablets.

METHODHPLC was used as a reference method to determine the contents of tanshinone II(A) and salvianolic acid B in Fu Fang Dan Shen tablets. Multivariate calibration models based on PLS1 algorithm were developed to correlate the spectra and the corresponding values determined by the reference methods.

RESULTRMSECV (root-mean-square error of cross-validation) of the models for tanshinone II(A) and salvianolic acid B were 0.0103 and 0.1868 respectively. The correlation coefficients of the calibration models were 0.9873 and 0.9832 respectively. External validation with external validation samples proved that the relative coefficient of the predicted value and the truth value were R2 = 0.9743 and R2 = 0.9886 respectively, with measured recycle rates of 103.0% and 99.0%.

CONCLUSIONNIRS can be used in the determination of tanshinone II(A) and salvianolic acid B, which sets up the foundation of product-line control of Fuang Danshen tablets.