title: Separation and determination of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in traditional Chinese herbal medicines by micellar electrokinetic chromatography with organic modifier.
abstract: A simple and rapid micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method was developed for the separation and determination of four toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) (senkirkine, senecionine, retrorsine, and seneciphylline) in two traditional Chinese herbal medicines (Qian liguang and Kuan donghua). Separation was performed in the running buffer consisting of 20 mM borate, 30 mM SDS, and 20% methanol at pH 9.1. With the optimized separation conditions, four PAs were separated in 17 min by a single run. The calibration curves showed good linearity with correlation efficiencies (R(2)) between 0.9940 and 0.9988. RSDs in migration time and peak area were 0.31, 0.40, 0.39, 0.48% and 3.28, 3.48, 4.16, 3.42% for senkirkine, senecionine, retrorsine, and seneciphylline, respectively. Limits of detection (S/N = 3) varied from 1.19 to 2.70 microg/mL. The proposed method was applied to determine the PAs extracted from Chinese herbal medicines (Qian liguang and Kuan donghua). PA of senkirkine in Kuan donghua was detected and the amount was found to be 79.1 microg/g. The results obtained indicate that the proposed MEKC method could potentially become an effective alternative tool for qualification control and quantitative analysis of herbal medicines in pharmaceutical industry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Lijun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Huatao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Sam Fong Yau
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002021:Buffers; D002138:Calibration; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D020374:Chromatography, Micellar Electrokinetic Capillary / Q000379:methods*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry*; D000432:Methanol / Q000737:chemistry; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D011763:Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids / Q000032:analysis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate
chemical_list: D002021:Buffers; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D011763:Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate; D000432:Methanol