Determination of active ingredients in Huangdan Yinchen Keli by CZE with amperometric detection

A simple, reliable and reproducible method, based on capillary zone electrophoresis with amperometric detection (CZE-AD), has been developed for simultaneous determination of five active ingredients in complicated traditional Chinese medicines including chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, aloe-emodin, emodin and rhein. A carbon-disk electrode was used as working electrode. The optimal conditions of CZE detection were 30 mM borate solution (pH 9.5) as running buffer, 18 kV as separation voltage and 1.00 V (versus Ag/AgCl) as detection potential. There was excellent linearity between current response and analyte concentration over two orders of magnitude, while the limits of detection were 1.1 x 10(-7), 3.0 x 10(-7), 1.5 x 10(-7), 2.9 x 10(-7), 1.4 x 10(-6) mol/l for aloe-emodin, emodin, rhein, chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid, respectively (S/N = 3). The utility of this method was demonstrated by monitoring a kind of complicated Chinese medicine named Huangdan Yinchen Keli. Two samples manufactured by different companies were monitored with satisfactory results.