Purpose: To develop and validate an improved method by capillary zone electrophoresis with photodiode array detection for the fingerprint analysis of
Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.
(
Rhizoma Chuanxiong
).
Methods: The optimum high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) conditions were 30 mM borax containing 5 %v/v acetonitrile at pH 9.6, direct injection of water extract at 0.5 psi for 5s, 25kV running voltage at positive power, 20 °C capillary temperature and 295 nm detection. Between injections, capillary was rinsed using 0.1M sodium hydroxide solution for 4 min, with HPCE-grade water for 4 min and re-equilibrated with running buffer for 2 min at 20 psi, moreover, the running buffer was replaced after three consecutive injections.
Results: Baseline separation of most of the 17 detectable peaks in the water extract could be completed within 21 min.The relative standard deviations (RSD) of precision, reproducibility, and stability were < 2.79 % for retention time and 8.68 % for peak area of the main peaks.
Conclusion: The developed method is simple, fast, reliable and environment-friendly for the fingerprint analysis of
Rhizoma Chuanxiong water extract.
