Abstract:

A reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method (RP-HPLC) was developed for the simultaneous determination of wedelolactone and isodemethylwedelolactone in Herba Ecliptae from different sources. The separation was performed on a Kromasil C18 column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm), with methanol-0.5% acetic acid (55∶45, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detection wavelength was set at 351 nm and the volume of injection was 20 μL. There were good linear relationships between the mass concentrations and the peak areas of isodemethylwedelolactone and wedelolactone in the ranges of 1.6-32.0 mg/L (r=0.9995) and 5.6-112.0 mg/L (r=0.9998), respectively. The recoveries were found to be in the range of 97.5%-98.2% and 99.0%-100.2%, respectively. The results of the experiments have demonstrated that the established method is rapid and simple with good accuracy and reproducibility for the simultaneous determination of wedelolactone and isodemethylwedelolactone. The method is suitable for the quality control of Herba Ecliptae from different sources.

Key words: Herba Ecliptae , isodemethylwedelolactone, wedelolactone, reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)