Abstract: An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-multiple reactions monitoring-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MRM-MS) method was established for the simultaneous determination of ten components namely chlorogenic acid,neochlorogenic acid,cryptochlorogenic acid,scutellarin,apigenin-7-O-glucronide, apigenin, caffeic acid, 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic acid,3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid and 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid in Erigeron breviscapus. A waters BEH C₁₈ column (2.1 mm×50 mm,1.7 μm) was used for the chromatographic separation with a gradient solvent system of 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile (A)-0.1% formic acid in water (B) as mobile phases.MRM mode was used as detection mode with electro-spray ionization (ESI) source.In certain range of concentrations,good linear relationships were established for the ten analytes.The average recoveries were 97.65%~105.4%,RSD were 0.66%~5.9%.The precision,repeatability and stability were good.The results showed that the contents of scutellarin components in E.breviscapus were all beyond the standard in Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China.The developed UPLC-MRM-MS method was simple,rapid and effective for the determination of the components in E.breviscapus. It provided a reliable way to control the quality of E.breviscapus.

Key words: UPLC-MRM-MS, Erigeron breviscapus, index compounds, content determination