[Quantitative Analysis of Piperine and the Derivatives in Long Pepper Extract by HPLC Using Relative Molar...

A novel method was developed for quantification of five major piperine derivatives (piperanine, piperine, chavicine, isopiperine, and isochavicine) in a hot water extract of long pepper fruit (LPE) using the relative molar sensitivity (RMS) based on the combination of HPLC/UV and ¹H- quantitative NMR (¹H-qNMR). The RMSs of piperanine, chavicine, isopiperine, and isochavicine to piperine of which the absolute purity was determined by ¹H-qNMR were calculated to be 0.3693, 1.138, 0.9164, and 1.277, respectively. The total amount of piperine derivatives in LPE was quantified by both ¹H-qNMR and HPLC/UV based on the RMS using piperine as a single-reference material (RMS method). The relative difference in quantitation values of ¹H-qNMR and calibration curve method from the RMS method was 2.01% or less. The relative difference of the total cis-trans piperine isomers content between before and after photoirradiation in piperine solution was quantified to be 2.84% by the RMS method. In addition, the interlaboratory difference of the RMS method was confirmed in the range of 0.600 to 4.00 μg/g when analysis was performed on piperine derivatives in LPE containing tablets, while the total amount of piperine derivatives in the tablets was quantified at 606 μg/g. Our proposed method is a reliable tool for determining the contents of piperine and the derivatives in LPE and processed foods containing LPE.