Background: Cyclocarya paliurus
is an endangered plant and endemic to China. The leaves of
C. paliurus have been used in drug formulations
and as ingredients in functional foods in China. The aim of this study was to develop an effective method to extract most of the compounds and to
establish a simplified HPLC analytical method to determine the contents of major bioactive compounds simultaneously.
Materials and methods: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with a photodiode array detector (PDA) was used for the
simultaneous determination of the major flavonoids and triterpenoids in C. paliurus leaves.
Results: Ultrasonic extraction in 100% methanol for 30 min was adopted as the optimal extraction method for
C. paliurus leaves. The separation
conditions were optimized using a Phenomenex C18 ODS column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase of acetonitrile and 0.02%
formic acid and a detection wavelength of 205 nm. The validation data indicated that this new HPLC analytical method successfully quantified
the provenance and seasonal variations of seven major compounds (three flavonoids and four triterpenoids) in
C. paliurus leaves.
Conclusion: The study provided a novel and simplified approach to simultaneously determine the quantity of major flavonoids and triterpenoids
in
C. paliurus leaves. The results could promote the optimization of silvicultural systems for quality control of C. paliurus.
