A rapid, simple, and practical high-performance liquid chromatographic method (HPLC) was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of norephedrine (NME), norpseudoephedrine (NMP), ephedrine (E), pseudoephedrine (PE), and methylephedrine (ME) in traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) which contained Ephedrae Herba (Ephedra). This analysis could be accomplished within 12.5 min with an Alltima Phenyl Column by isocratic elution using a mixture of KH2PO4 (20 mM)-acetonitrile (96:4, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow-rate of 0.6 mL min−1 and a wavelength of 210 nm. This method was successfully applied to quantify ephedra alkaloids in both Ma-xing-gan-shi decoction and Ephedra decoction. The concentration of total ephedra alkaloids (4.62 mg mL−1) in Ma-xing-gan-shi decoction was much lower than that (7.10 mg mL−1) in Ephedra decoction. Furthermore, the concentration of NME, NMP, E, PE, and ME was significantly lower in Ma-xing-gan-shi decoction than that in Ephedra decoction, respectively. The method was easily acceptable and would be popular with most analytical laboratories.
[1]. F.J. Duan 1999 Formula of Traditional Chinese Medicine China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine Beijing 80–83.
[2]. E.A. Abourashed A.T. El-Alfy I.A. Khan L. Walker 2003 Phytother. Res. 17 703–712.
[3]. W.H. Organization 1999 Herba Ephedrae WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants Publications of the World Health Organization Geneva 145–163.
[4]. S.M. Wang R.J. Lewis D. Canfield T.L. Li C.Y. Chen R.H. Liu 2005 J. Chromatogr. B. 825 88–95.
[5]. P.R. Garcia M. Yonamine 2005 Moreau RLDM Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Farmaceuticas 41 351–358.
[6]. E. Marchei M. Pellegrini R. Pacifici P. Zuccaro S. Pichini 2006 J. Pharmaceut. Biomed. 41 1633–1641.
[7]. J.F. Cui T.H. Zhou J.S. Zhang Z.C. Lou 1991 Phytochem. Anal. 2 116–119.
[8]. K.H. Chan R.N. Pan M.C. Hsu 2005 Biomed. Chromatogr. 19 337–342.
[9]. N. Okamura H. Miki T. Harada S. Yamashita Y. Masaoka Y. Nakamoto M. Tsuguma H. Yoshitomi A. Yagi 1999 J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 20 363–372.
[10]. B.J. Gurley P. Wang S.F. Gardner 1998 J. Pharm. Sci. 87 1547–1553.
[11]. C. Imaz D. Carreras R. Navajas C. Rodriguez A.F. Rodriguez J. Maynar R. Cortes 1993 J. Chromatogr. A 631 201–205.
[12]. M.C. Roman 2004 J. AOAC Int. 87 1–14.
[13]. J.A. Hurlbut J.R. Carr E.R. Singleton K.C. Faul M.R. Madson J.M. Storey T.L. Thomas 1998 J. AOAC Int. 81 1121–1127.
[14]. M. Ganzera C. Lanser H. Stuppner 2005 Talanta 66 889–894.
[15]. S.J. Sheu M.H. Huang 2001 Chromatographia 54 117–119.
[16]. B.T. Schaneberg I.A. Khan 2004 Pharmazie 59 819–823.
[17]. K.W. Phinney T. Ihara L.C. Sander 2005 J. Chromatogr. A 1077 90–97.
[18]. N. Miyatake H. Miyake M. Nagashima M. Takahashi K. Yasuda I. Yasuda 2004 Yakugaku Zasshi 124 333–339.
[19]. C.L. Flurer L.A. Lin R.D. Satzger K.A. Wolnik 1995 J. Chromatogr. B: Biomed. Appl. 669 133–139.
[20]. B. Wiedemer and C. Thrall, LC GC N. Am., S, 43 (2004).
[21]. K. Sagara T. Oshima T. Misaki 1983 Chem. Pharm. Bull. 31 2359–2365.
[22]. Q.H. Zhu F.L. Chen S. Bai J.B. Luo 2005 Chin. J. Pharm. Anal. 25 1030–1034.
[23]. F. Pellati S. Benvenuti 2008 J. Pharmaceut. Biomed. 48 254–263.
[24]. J. Li 1992 “Shang Han Lun” Fang Zheng Yao Yan Jiu Heilongjiang Science and Technology Press Haerbin 73.
[25]. Q. Wang 1988 “Shang Han Lun” Jiang Jie Henan Science and Technology Press Zhengzhou 82.
[26]. W.J. Lin K. Chen L. Lin 2004 Chin. J. Pharm. Anal. 24 378–380.
[27]. C. Imaz R. Navajas D. Carreras C. Rodriguez A.F. Rodriguez 2000 J. Chromatogr. A 870 23–28.
[28]. J.S. Zhang Z. Tian Z.C. Lou 1989 Yao Xue Xue Bao 24 865–871.