title: [Research on quality standards of herbs of Peganum harmala].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the quality standards of the herbs of Peganum harmala.
  
  
  METHODS
  According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010 version, volume 1) and its appendix method, the water, total ash, acid insoluble ash, water-soluble extractives, and heavy metal were analyzed for herbs of P. harmala. TLC method was used to separate harmaline, harmine and vasicine from the herb samples by mixture of ethyl acetate-methanol-ammonia (10: 1.5: 0.5) as a developing solvent on high performance silica gel precoated plate (HSGF254) and to identify them inspected under UV 366 nm, visualized by spraying with both Dragendorff reagent, and by bioautographic assay. In the HPLC method, vasicine was separated on a C18 (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) column with metnanol-0.1% trifluoroacetic acid (15:85) as the mobile phase and detected at at 280 nm.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the TLC procedures, 254 nm fluorescent and bioautographic assay for the detection of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor can be used for the qualitative identification of the active ingredients. For the HPLC quantitation method, the calibration curve of vasicine displayed ideal linearity over the range of 0.7923-792.3 mg x L(-1) with the regression equation of Y = 18,227X - 24.879 (r = 0.9999). The average recovery of vasicine was 101.6% with a RSD of 1.9%. The RSD values of intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 2%. The content of vasicine in 10 batches of herbs of P. harmala fluctuates between 0.23% and 1.47%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicated that the limit of vasicine was not lower than 0.6%, and the water, total ash, acid insoluble ash, and water-soluble extractives were not more than 10.0%, 20.0%, 1.7%, and 30.0%, respectively. The heavy metal of plumbum, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and copper were not more than 5, 3, 2, 2, and 20 mg x kg(-1), respectively. The qualitative and quantitative method established was suitable for the quality evaluation and assessment of herbs of P. harmala.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China.
authors.forename: Fang-fang
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Li-ming
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Xiao-jing
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xue-mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Chang-hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zheng-taou
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000470:Alkaloids / Q000737:chemistry; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000737:chemistry; D032443:Peganum / Q000737:chemistry*; D011786:Quality Control; D011799:Quinazolines / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000470:Alkaloids; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D011799:Quinazolines; C019592:vasicine