Isolation of gallic acid and methyl gallate from folium Toonea Sinensis and validated method for their quantitation using LC-based technologies

摘要

Silica-gel column chromatography and preparative reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) were sequentially employed for the isolation of two antioxidants including gallic acid and methyl gallate from Folium Toonea Sinensis. An RP-HPLC-UV method was then developed and validated to rapidly determine their content in this herb with ethyl gallate as internal standard. The quantitation was performed on an XBridge Shield RP18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) under 40 C. The mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution was driven at 1.0 mL min~(-1) under gradient elution, and 270 nm was selected to monitor the separation. To evaluate the fitness for purpose of the method and to investigate the difference in the content of analytes among different samples, the leaves collected from five production sites were analyzed. The newly established method is suitable for routine analysis of gallic acid and methyl gallate in the herb and, hence, can assist in its quality assessment. It was also found that not only the content of two antioxidants but also the ratio varied significantly among different geographical origins. In addition, three samples from Yantai, Zumadian, and Zhenjiang were distinguished as they have a much higher content ratio than the other two.