Simultaneous determination of six boswellic acids in Xihuang Pill by HPLC-ELSD / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To establish an HPLC-ELSD method for simultaneous determination of six kinds of boswellic acids including 11-carbonyl-β-boswellic acid, acetyl-11-carbonyl-β-boswellic acid, α-boswellic acid, β-boswellic acid, 3-acetyl-α-boswellic acid, and 3-acetyl-β-boswellic acid in 10 batches of Xihuang Pill (XHP). Methods: The separation was achieved on a Waters Symmetry C18 column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) with the mobile phase consisting of methanol-0.5% acetic acid to be gradient elution. Flow rate was 0.8 mL/min and column temperature was 30℃. The samples were tested on Evaporative Light-scattering Detector with drift tube temperature of 45℃, carrier gas of purity N2, and carrier gas flow rate of 1.5 L/min. Results: 11-Carbonyl-β-boswellic acid, acetyl-11-carbonyl-β-boswellic acid, α-boswellic acid, β-boswellic acid, 3-acetyl-α-boswellic acid, and 3-acetyl-β-boswellic acid had good linearity in the ranges of 0.10-3.00 μg (r=0.9995), 1.23-36.9 μg (r=0.9995), 0.16-4.8 μg (r=0.9997), 0.25-7.5 μg (r=0.9997), 0.21-6.3 μg (r=0.9995), and 0.30-9.0 μg (r=0.9996), respectively. The average recoveries of the six boswellic acids were 99.6% (3.70%), 99.1% (3.62%), 99.2% (1.66%), 98.2% (1.89%), 99.1% (3.42%), and 99.5% (2.32%), respectively. Conclusion: This method is simple, reliable, and with good effect for the separation, and can provide the reference for study on XHP material basis.