Tea saponin assisted micellar electrokinetic chromatography for efficient separation of natural phenolic compounds...

A micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) approach for determining phenolic compounds in Perillae Folium, using natural tea saponin (TS) as a surfactant has been developed in this work. Optimal extraction parameters including the surfactant type, TS concentration, background solution (BGS) system, borax concentration, and buffer pH were systematically optimized. The optimal BGS comprised 0.8% w/v TS with 15 mM borax. MEKC exhibits effective linearity with detection coefficients of 0.9991-0.9999, satisfactory recovery of 90.33-110.56%, and limits of detection values of 0.0004-0.0009 mg/g. Furthermore, the greenness of the developed method was evaluated based on the Green Analytical Greenness Metric, Analytical Eco-Scale, Green Analytical Procedure Index, and Blue Applicability Grade Index. Several interesting features such as satisfactory recovery, low sample amounts, and excellent greenness were obtained from complex food matrices.