Abstract

The aim of this study was to optimize a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the simultaneous quantification of the four main compounds geniposide, berberine, baicalin and crocin present in the Traditional Chinese formula Huanglianjiedutang (HLJDT). This formula contains Coptidis Rhizoma, Radix Scutellariae, Cortex Phellodendri and Fructus Gardeniae in a ratio of 1.5: 1: 1: 1.5. The decoction of the formula was prepared in the traditional Chinese way. The most suitable boiling time for the decoction turned out to be 60 min. Validation of the method was performed to demonstrate its reproducibility, precision, stability, repeatability, and recovery rate. Excellent behaviours over the investigated concentrations were observed with the values of RSD ≤ 5%. For the estimation of the recovery rate, half of the herbs were boiled together with the pure compounds. As crocin turned out to be an unstable compound its recovery rate could not be determined. The optimized HPLC method provides an accurate and reproducible analysis for the simultaneous determination of geniposide, berberine, baicalin, and crocin in the formulation HLJDT which is a very important tool for the quality control of this Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formula.

Key words: High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), quantification, validation, huanglianjiedutang (HLJDT), geniposide, berberine, crocin, baicalin.