RESUMO
Objective To establish qualitative and quantitative methods for analyzing monotropein in Liquidambaris Radix. Methods Monotropein in Liquidambaris Radix was identified by using TLC. The contents of monotropein in the samples were determined by HPLC on an Sino Chrom ODS-BP column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) with methanol-0.1％ phosphoric acid solution (1:99) as the mobile phase at the flow rate of 1.0 m L/min; the detection wavelength was 235 nm; the column temperature was 25 ℃; the injection volume was 10 μL. Results Monotropein in Liquidambaris Radix could be identified by TLC. Monotropein showed good linear relation in the range of 0.150 1– 1.501 0 μg (r=0.999 8), and the average recovery rate was 95.93％ (RSD=0.60％). The contents of monotropein in Liquidambaris Radix from 10 different producing areas were among the range of 0.20％–1.15％. Conclusion The method is simple, stable, reliable and reproducible, which can be used for the quality control of Liquidambaris Radix.