[Simultaneous content determination of 14 components in Rhei Radix et Rhizoma by high performance liquid...

To establish an HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) method for the simultaneous content determination of gallic acid, (+)-catechin, (－)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate, isolindleyin, 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone, emodin, chrysophanol, physcion, aloe-emodin, rhein, lindleyin, 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone-4'-O-β-D-(2″-O-galloyl-6″-O-cinnamoyl)-glucopyranoside, sennoside A and sennoside B in Rhei Radix et Rhizoma. The analysis was performed on Agilent Zorbax SB-C₁₈ (4.6 mm×150 mm, 5 μm) with 0.05% phosphoric acid solution (A) - acetonitrile (B) as mobile phase for gradient elution. The flow rate was 1 mL•min⁻¹, with column temperature of 40 ℃ and the wavelength was set at 268 nm. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r > 0.999 9) within the concentration range. Both the intra- and inter-day precision for 14 analytes was less than 3.1%, with the mean recovery at the range of 91.80%-104.1%. Meanwhile, quantitative determination was carried out for 10 qualified samples from Rheum palmatum and 10 qualified samples from R. tanguticum, respectively. It was found that the content of 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone and aloe-emodin were higher in the R. tanguticum and R. palmatum, respectively, and the content of all the compounds was different in each sample. The established HPLC method for simultaneous content determination of 14 compounds from Rhei Radix et Rhizoma could be used for quantitative assessment and quality control of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma.