RESUMO
Objective: To control the quality of ipecac and its preparations, and to investigate the simultaneous quantitative determination of cephaeline and emetine. Methods: After ultrasonic extraction with acidic methanol solution or direct diluting preparations, cephaeline hydrochloride and emetine hydrochloride in ipecac and its preparations were separated within 20 min using a mixture of acetonitrile-methanol-0.1% phosphoric acid (9:3:88) as the mobile phase on a C18 column by HPLC. UV detector was set at 205 nm. The flow rate was set at 1.0 mL/min. Results: The methodological study showed that a good linear correlation existed in the range of 0.014 560.2184 μg (r = 0.999 97) for cephaeline hydrochloride and 0.0321-0.321 μg (r = 0.999 97) for emetine hydrochloride, respectively. The average recovery of cephaeline hydrochloride and emetine hydrochloride was 96.93% and 99.47%, and the RSD values (n = 9) were 1.31% and 2.02%, respectively. Conclusion: The assay is sensitive, accurate, specific, and applicable to comprehensive evaluation on the quality of ipecac and its preparations. © 2013 Tianjin Press of Chinese Herbal Medicines.