Quality control for extracts from aerial parts of Rheum officinale based on multi-assay depending on one determination / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To establish a method for the quality control of the extracts from the aerial parts of Rheum officinale (EARO) based on multi-assay depending on one determination (MDOD). Methods: The quality control of EARO was carried out through the thin-layer chromatography(TLC), discrimination of chromatographic peak in fingerprint, ultraviolet spectrophotometric, and HPLC methods. The relative correction factors of aloe-emodin, chrysophanol, and physcione for detecting emodin were set up, the factors were used to measure their contents, and the method was adopted to the quality control of EARO. Results: The experimental and control samples in TLC showed the same colored spots at the same position in EARO, five characteristic peaks among six were identified, and showed a good linear relationship at the range of 4.944-29.664 μg/mL (r = 0.9990). The method of MDOD showed the recoveries of aloe-emodin, emodin, chrysophanol, and physcione were 97.08%, 95.78%, 100.60%, and 97.47%, and the RSD values were 3.32%, 2.42%, 3.72%, and 2.67%. There were no significant differences between MDOD method and external standard method. Conclusion: TLC and fingerprint could be used to identify the chemical constituents in EARO, and ultraviolet spectrophotometry could be used to control the quantity of the total anthraquinone. The method of MDOD could be used to quantitatively control the contents of aloe-emodin, emodin, chrysophanol, and physcione, and the method is simple and accurate, which has a higher repeatability.