Determination of homoisoflavonoids in Ophiopogon japonicus by RP-HPLC

Abstract

The homoisoflavonoid content of 14 samples of Ophiopogon japonicus collected from different parts of China have been investigated. Three principal homoisoflavonoids, methylophiopogonanone A, methylophiopogonanone B, and 6-aldehydo-isoophiopogonanone A, were analyzed simultaneously by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with a binary mixture of acetonitrile and 0.3% aqueous acetic acid as mobile phase. The recovery of the method was 98.5-102.6% and good linearity (r > 0.9990) was obtained for all the homoisoflavonoids over a relatively wide concentration range. The results indicated that the homoisoflavonoid content of Ophiopogon japonicus varied significantly from species to species, and from locality to locality. The quality and identity of Ophiopogon japonicus from the herb market can be determined from the homoisoflavonoid content.