Determination of oleanolic and ursolic acids in different parts of Perilla frutescens by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt.(Lamiaceae), a famous traditional Chinese medicine, has been used for the treatment of various diseases. To evaluate the quality of P. frutescens, a simple, rapid and accurate high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed for the assessment of two bioactive triterpene acids: oleanolic acid (OA) and ursolic acid (UA). The HPLC system used an Kromasil 100 C18 RP column with methanol and aqueous H 3PO4 as the mobile phase and detection at 210 nm. The method was precise with relative standard deviations for these two constituents that ranged between 0.3-0.6% (intraday) and 0.6-1.2% (interday). The contents of the OA and UA in P. frutescens were determined with recoveries ranging from 96.7 to 102.0%. The content of these two phytochemicals in different parts of P. frutescens growing at five different locations of China were determined to establish the effectiveness of the method. ©2008 Sociedade Brasileira de Química.