A facile and highly efficient magnetic solid-phase extraction method has been developed for Z-ligustilide, the major therapeutic agent in Angelica sinensis. The solid-phase adsorbent material used was prepared by conjugating carbon nanotubes with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles via a hydrothermal reaction. The magnetic material showed a high affinity toward Z-ligustilide due to the pi-pi stacking interaction between the carbon nanotubes and Z-ligustilide, allowing a quick and selective exaction of Z-ligustilide from complex sample matrices. Factors influencing the magnetic solid-phase extraction such as the amount of the added adsorbent, adsorption and desorption time, and desorption solvent, were investigated. Due to its high extraction efficiency, this method was proved highly useful for sample cleanup/enrichment in quantitative high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. The proposed method had a linear calibration curve (R-2 = 0.9983) over the concentration between 4 ng/mL and 200 mu g/mL Z-ligustilide. The accuracy of the method was determined by the recovery, which was from 92.07 to 104.02%, with the relative standard deviations >4.51%
