[Isolation and determination of ecliptal in Herba Ecliptae by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography]

The ecliptal was isolated from Herba Ecliptae by high performance liquid chromatography and identified by mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR). A method for determination of ecliptal in Herba Ecliptae was developed by using a Kromasil C18 column (200 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) with a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.1% phosphoric acid solution (65:35, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detection wavelength was set at 365 nm and temperature was set at 30 degrees C. The volume of injection was 10 microL. There was good linear relationship (r = 0. 9993) between the mass concentration and the peak area of ecliptal in the range of 3.0 - 60.0 microg/mL. The recovery was found to be in the range of 96.7% - 100.0%. The results of the experiments have demonstrated that the established method is rapid and simple with good accuracy and reproducibility. The method is suitable for the quality control of Herba Ecliptae from different sources.