Facile separation and determination of Aconitine alkaloids in traditional Chinese medicines by CE with tris(2,2'‐bipyridyl) ruthenium(II)‐based electrochemiluminescence detection

Abstract

A facile CE method coupled with tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium(II)-based electrochemiluminescence [Ru(bpy)(3) (2+)] detection was developed for simultaneous determination of Aconitum alkaloids, i.e., hypaconitine (HA), aconitine (AC), and mesaconitine (MA) in baseline separation. The optimal separation of these Aconitum alkaloids was achieved in a fused-silica capillary column (50 cm x 25 microm id) with 30 mM phosphate solution (pH 8.40) as running buffer at 12 kV applied voltage. The three alkaloids can be determined within 10 min by a single run. The calibration curves showed a linear range from 2.0 x 10(-7) to 2.0 x 10(-5) M for HA, 3.4 x 10(-7) to 1.7 x 10(-5) M for AC, and 3.8 x 10(-7) to 1.9 x 10(-5) M for MA. The RSDs for all analytes were below 3.01%. Good linear relationships were found with correlation coefficients for all analytes exceeding 0.993. The detection limits were 2.0 x 10(-8) M for HA, 1.7 x 10(-7) M for AC, and 1.9 x 10(-7) M for MA under optimal conditions. This method was successfully applied to determine the three alkaloids in Aconitum plants.

Quality control of herbal medicines by capillary electrophoresis: Potential, requirements and applications

“…Yin et al [32] employed regular FSCE in a phosphate buffer at pH 8.4 and Ru(bpy) 3 21 -based ECL detection for the determination of hypaconitine, aconitine and meaconitine in three herbal preparations. Within 6 min the compounds could be separated with excellent sensitivity (LODr19 Â 10 À9 M); quantitative results were not presented.…”

Applications of Electrochemiluminescence

“…ECL in combination with some techniques has also been used to determine pesticides [112], herbicides [113], and alkaloids. Pesticides [114], acephate and dimethoate, were determined using a composite electrode (a TBR-multi-walled carbon nanotube paste electrode) with coreagent TPA [115].…”

Capillary electrophoresis of natural products: Highlights of the last five years (2006–2010)

“…UV detection is obviously still the most popularly used detection strategy but MS detection is gaining more and more ground 65, 138–149. Also used were ECL 150–158 and LIF 152, 159–164.…”

“…There was a good number of CE investigations of pharmaceuticals/herbal product compounds 138, 150–153, 157, 159, 166–169, 171, 172, 176, 178–180, 182, 186, 187, 341, 357–375 during this review period. Mostly performed in MEKC mode, these included the determination of biogenic amines (toxicological‐risk agents) 364, toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in G ynura segenum (a health‐risk plant species) 168, diterpenoids in Salvia species (a herbal remedy and food flavor) 166, statins (cholesterol‐lowering drugs, some of which are naturally occurring) 365 in drug products.…”