Study on quality standards for Chimonanthus nitens

Chimonanthus nitens Oliv. is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. Terpenoids, flavonoids, and coumarins are usually considered its main bioactive ingredients. Thus, qualitative and quantitative analyses of these compounds are crucial in quality control studies of Chimonanthus nitens. In this study, five compounds were identified by double-development thin layer chromatography (TLC) and the content of four compounds was determined by high performance liquid chromatography; the detection wavelength was set to 344 nm and the column temperature was 40°C. All calibration curves showed good linear regression (R2 > 0.9995). The average recoveries ranged from 97.06 to 104.44%. The RSD was below 4.2%. Four compounds remained stable over 24 h and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the precision of their measurement was less than 1.5%. The developed method was reproducible, sensitive, and simple, and could be used for quality control of Chimonanthus nitens.