A study of retention characteristics and quality control of nutraceuticals containing resveratrol and polydatin using fused-core column chromatography

• The fast method for determination of resveratrol and polydatin was developed.
• The effect of acetonitrile on retention factors of resveratrol and polydatin was evaluated.
• Quality control of nutraceuticals with resveratrol and polydatin content showed variable results.
• Method shows short time (3 min) of analysis and reliability for routine control laboratories.

A new high-performance liquid chromatography method using fused-core column for fast separation of resveratrol and polydatin has been developed and used for quality control of nutraceuticals with resveratrol and polydatin content. Retention characteristics (log k) were studied under different conditions on C-18, RP-Amide C-18, Phenyl–hexyl, Pentafluorophenyl (F5) and Cyano stationary phases for both compounds. The effect of the volume fraction of acetonitrile on a retention factors log k of resveratrol and polydatin were evaluated. The optimal separation conditions for resveratrol, polydatin and internal standard p-nitrophenol were found on the fused-core column Ascentis Express ES-Cyano (100 × 3.0 mm), particle size 2.7 μm, with mobile phase acetonitrile/water solution with 0.5% acetic acid pH 3 (20:80, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and at 60 °C. The detection wavelength was set at 305 nm. Under the optimal chromatographic conditions, good linearity with regression coefficients in the range (r = 0.9992–0.9998; n = 10) for both compounds was achieved. Commercial samples of nutraceuticals were extracted with methanol using ultrasound bath for 15 min. A 5 μL sample volume of the filtered solution was directly injected into the HPLC system. Accuracy of the method defined as a mean recovery was in the range 83.2–107.3% for both nutraceuticals. The intraday method precision was found satisfactory and relative standard deviations of sample analysis were in the range 0.8–4.7%. The developed method has shown high sample throughput during sample preparation process, modern separation approach, and short time (3 min) of analysis. The results of study showed that the declared content of resveratrol and polydatin varied widely in different nutraceuticals according the producers (71.50–115.00% of declared content).

The effect of the volume fraction of acetonitrile (φ ACN; 10−2 vol.%) on a retention factors log k of resveratrol and polydatin on different stationary phases.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide