Separation of hydroxylated and methoxylated flavonoids by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

Separation and determination of chalcones from Carthamus tinctorius L. and its medicinal preparation by capillary zone electrophoresis

A new capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method was developed for simultaneous assay of four chalcones, hydroxysafflor yellow A, safflor yellow A, safflamin C, and safflamin A, in the Chinese herbal extract from Carthamus tinctorius L. The optimum buffer system was 30 mM borate buffer (Na2B407/HCl, pH 9.00) with 10% (v/v) methanol. The voltage was 15 kV and detection was at 270 nm. Regression equations revealed linear relationships (correlation coefficients: 0.9973, 0.9992, 0.9989, and 0.9996) between the peak area of each compound and its concentration. The within-day relative standard deviations of migration times and peak areas were < 1.53 and 4.14%, respectively. The effects of several CE parameters on the resolution were studied systematically. The contents of four chalcones in Carthamus tinctorius L. were successfully determined with satisfactory repeatability and recovery. The possibilities of using this method for the determination of chalcones in Chinese medicinal preparation was also tested.

Analytical separation and detection methods for flavonoids

Flavonoids receive considerable attention in the literature, specifically because of their biological and physiological importance. This review focuses on separation and detection methods for flavonoids and their application to plants, food, drinks and biological fluids. The topics that will be discussed are sample treatment, column liquid chromatography (LC), but also methods such as gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis (CE) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC), various detection methods and structural characterization. Because of the increasing interest in structure elucidation of flavonoids, special attention will be devoted to the use of tandem-mass spectrometric (MS/MS) techniques for the characterization of several important sub-classes, and to the potential of combined diode-array UV (DAD UV), tandem-MS and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) detection for unambiguous identification. Emphasis will be on recent developments and trends.

Determination of critical micelle concentration of surfactants by capillary electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been proven to be a convenient and useful technique for the determination of the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of a surfactant in an electrophoretic system under operating conditions. In this review, methodological approaches to the determination of the CMC of surfactants by CE technique are described. The practical requirements for making such measurements and the CMC values of surfactants determined by CE methods are presented. In addition, difficulties and uncertainty, as well as misconceptions that may arise in the CMC determination are discussed.

An enantiomeric assay for the flavonoids medicarpin and vestitone using capillary electrophoresis

An enantiomeric assay for the flavonoids vestitone and medicarpin from transgenic plant extracts was developed using capillary electrophoresis. It was found that no single cyclodextrin proved capable of resolving the enantiomers of both medicarpin and vestitone. Instead, hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin provided the best selectivity for the vestitones while hydroxypropyl-gamma-cyclodextrin was best for the medicarpins. The addition of organic modifiers improved the resolution of both enantiomers. Acetonitrile proved best for the vestitones and only methanol improved the resolution of the medicarpins. An optimization study of mixed hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin and hydroxypropyl-gamma-cyclodextrin containing electrolytes revealed that the separation of the medicarpin enantiomers was intolerant to the presence of hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin. Our optimized running electrolyte was composed of 2 mM hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin, 20 mM hydroxypropyl-gamma-cyclodextrin, and 25 mM borate at pH 10.0 with 10% v/v methanol. This system provided a resolution of 1.47 and 1.80 for the medicarpin and vestitone enantiomers, respectively. This analysis was completed in 12 min. This separation provided a rapid screen to determine the enantiomeric purity of key flavonoids biosynthesized by transgenic legumes.

Capillary electrophoresis of natural products-II

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) were used for the separation of widely different compounds from natural materials including compounds from tea, acids from different matrices, flavonoids and alkaloids, toxins and toxicological compounds, proteins and polypeptides, biogenic amines, phenolic compounds in alcoholic beverages, Chinese medicinal drugs, compounds in cells and cell extracts, and miscellaneous other applications. A section dealing with recent reviews related to natural products is also included.