Development and validation of a RP-HPLC method for simultaneous determination of salicin and eight flavonoids in leaves of Salix Matsudana Koidz

Abstract

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the first time to simultaneously determine salicin and eight flavonoids in leaves of Salix matsudana, that is salicin, luteolin-7-O- glucoside, myricetin, apigenin-3′-oxyethyl-7-O-glucoside, rutin, quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol and apigenin. The separation of these compounds was achieved on a reversed phase C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm), with linear gradient of methanol in 0.2% phosphoric acid solution with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min with UV detection at 246 nm. The calibration curves for the determination of all analytes showed good linearity over the investigated ranges (r > 0.999). The % relative standard deviation (% RSD) values were less than 0.34%, and the recoveries were between 95.79% and 99.94%. The values of luteolin-7-O-glucoside, salicin, myricetin, apigenin-3′-oxyethyl-7-O-glucoside, rutin, quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, and apigenin were 1.0 μg g-1, 20.0 μg g-1, 32.9 μg g-1, 2.0 μg g-1, 29.5 μg g-1, 6.0 μg g-1, 1.0 μg g-1, 3.5 μg g-1, and apigenin was not found in the sample. This developed method can be used for evaluating the quality of different plant materials.