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Determination of Tanshinones in Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza) by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection after pre-Column Derivatisation

Authors Kishikawa, Naoya; Yamanouchi, Akiko; El-Maghrabey, Mahmoud Hamed; Ohyama, Kaname; Kuroda, Naotaka

Journal PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS , JAN-FEB 2018,1:29

DOI 10.1002/pca.2719 PubMed 28895217

Abstract IntroductionTanshinones are a major class of bioactive ingredients in the traditional herbal medicines, Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza). A sensitive and reliable determination method for tanshinones is useful to ensure the quality of Danshen.ObjectiveTo develop a sensitive and selective analytical method for tanshinones by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection after pre-column derivatisation.MethodologyThe proposed method depends on derivatisation reaction of tanshinones with 4-carbomethoxybenzaldehyde and ammonium acetate forming intensely fluorescent imidazole derivative.ResultsThe proposed method provided excellent sensitivity with the detection limits of 3.3nM (66 fmol/injection), 3.2nM (64 fmol/injection) and 2.0nM (40 fmol/injection) for cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I and tanshinone IIA, respectively, without the necessity of complicated instrumentations. The developed method is successfully applied to quantify the contents of tanshinones in Danshen.ConclusionThe developed method is the first analytical method for tanshinones by fluorescence detection. Since the derivatisation reaction is selective for the o-quinone structure of tanshinone, the developed method will become a suitable mean for the discovering of tanshinone type diterpenoids from herbal samples. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.We present a sensitive and selective method for the quantification of tanshinones by HPLC with fluorescence detection after pre-column derivatisation. The proposed method depends on the derivatisation reaction of tanshinones to form highly fluorescent imidazole derivatives with 4-carbomethoxybenzaldehyde and ammonium acetate as reagents. The contents of cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I and tanshinone IIA were successfully determined in Danshen by the developed method.

Species covered 丹参 Salvia miltiorrhiza