Development and validation of a liquid chromatography method for quantification of xanthorrhizol in roots of Iostephane heterophylla (Cav.) Benth ex Hemsl

摘要

Roots of Iostephane heterophylla (Cav.) Benth ex Hemsl are used mainly in Mexican traditional medicine to heal skin problems. The development of a column high-performance liquid chromatography (LC)-UV detector method for the determination of xanthorrhizol, the major and active component of the roots of I. heterophylla, is described in this paper. The content of this compound was quantitatively determined employing a Symmetry C18 5 microm particle size column with the isocratic mobile phase acetonitrile-water (85 + 15). The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min, and UV detection was at 230 nm. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.2 and 0.5 microg/mL, respectively. Quantities of xanthorrhizol measured by this method ranged between 1.8 to 10.94 mg/g of root of the plant in 11 different samples of I. heterophylla. Xanthorrhizol was not detected in a sample of I. madrensis, so xanthorrhizol could be used as a marker compound of I. heterophylla. The LC method described here was shown to be reliable, reproducible, and accurate.