Content Determination of Four Triterpenes in Caragana sinica by HPLC and α-glucosidase Activity Assay in Vitro / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To establish HPLC methods for the determination of betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, and lupeol in Caragana sinica roots, and investigate the α-glucosidase activity of the four compounds in vitro. METHODS: An Agilent Eclipse XDB-C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) was applied with methanol-water-phosphoric acid (85150.1) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 mL·min-1 to separate betulinic acid, ursolic acid, and oleanolic acid. An Inert Sustain C18 column (4.6 mm × 150 mm, 5 μm) was applied with acetonitrile-water (7030) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.8 mL·min-1 to separate lupeol. RESULTS: Good linearities were achieved for betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, and lupeol within the range of 0.56-5.58, 0.42-4.20, 0.19-1.92, and 6.10-61.00 μg, respectively. The average recoveries were 99.79%, 98.51%, 98.05%, and 99.47%, and the RSDs were 1.53%, 1.74%, 1.78%, and 1.94%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The developed methods are accurate and can be used for the quality control of Caragana sinica. In addition to betulinic acid, the other three compounds show good α-glucosidase inhibitory activity and are expected to be developed as new hypoglycemic drugs.