Simultaneous determination of three Aconitum alkaloids in six herbal medicines by high-performance liquid chromatography.
To simultaneously determine three components of aconitine, mesaconitine, and hypaconitine in six species of Aconitum genus, an extraction condition for the total alkaloids was specifically optimized and a simple analytical method of reversed-phased highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed. The extraction rate of total alkaloids in A. szechenyianum Gay was 98.3% for repeated extracting three times with an acidic alcohol solution (alcohol: pH 3.0 HAc = 85:15, v/v). The chromatography was carried out on a Phenomenex Luna C(18) column by gradient elution with a mobile phase of 0.03 mol/mL ammonium bicarbonate (pH = 9.50) -acetonitrile at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The method for all three alkaloids had good linear relationships (r > 0.999) in the concentration range of 1.0-200.0 μg/mL. The average recoveries were 96.6-103.1%, and the LOQ and LOD were in the range of 25-37 ng/mL and 9-12 ng/mL, respectively. The quantitative results indicated that contents of the three alkaloids varied significantly among crude aconite roots, so quality control of traditional Chinese medicines containing aconite roots should be taken into account.
School of Chemistry and Materials Science; Key Lab of Medicinal Plant Resource and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the Education Ministry, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
Xue-Qin
XQ
Kang
Zhi-Chao
ZC
Fan
Zhi-Qi
ZQ
Zhang
D031841:Aconitum / Q000737:chemistry*; D000470:Alkaloids / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D029001:Herbal Medicine; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000032:analysis*
D000470:Alkaloids; D010936:Plant Extracts