To improve the determination method for the total anthraquinone of the Rhei Radix et Rhizoma in the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, and compare this method with the method in the pharmacopoeia to determine the feasibility of such method.

By changing the determination of total anthraquinone from biphasic hydrolysis to monophase hydrolysis, the method included in the pharmacopoeia was improved to determine the total anthraquinone content in Rhei Radix et Rhizoma. Chromatographic conditions were Symmetry C18 (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) chromatographic column; the mobile phase is methanol-0.1% phosphoric acid water (85:15); the flow rate was 1 ml/min; the column temperature is 30 ℃; the detection wavelength is 254 nm.

The concentrations of aloe-emodin, rhein, emodin, chrysophanol, physcion in the range of 0.003 3-0.332 0 µg, 0.006 9-0.668 0 µg, 0.002 3-0.232 0 µg, 0.010 4-1.040 0 µg, 0.008 4-0.836 0 µg have good linear relationship with the peak area; RSDs of precision, stability and repeatability were less than 2%; the recovery rates of aloe-emodin, rhein, emodin, chrysophanol and physcion were 101.50%, 99.30%, 99.62%, 101.57%, and 103.11%, and the RSDs were less than 2%.

The improvement method is simple, accurate, reliable and reproducible, which could be used for the quality control of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma.

Rhei Radix et Rhizoma; Anthraquinones; Pharmacopoeias (TCD); Assay (TCD)