Simultaneous determination of fangchinoline and tetrandrine in Stephania tetrandra S. Moore by using 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids as the RP-HPLC mobile phase additives

A reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for simultaneous determination of fangchinoline (FAN) and tetrandrine (TET) in Stephania tetrandra S. Moore was established by using 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate as the mobile phase additives in this paper. Four types of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) were used as additives of the mobile phase to separate FAN and TET by RP-HPLC. The effects of the length of the alkyl group on the imidazolium ring and its counterion, the concentrations of IL and the pH of the mobile phase, which influenced the chromatographic behaviors of FAN and TET, were investigated in detail. The linearity, sensitivity, accuracy and repeatability of the proposed method were also investigated. The probable mechanism of the separation with ILs as the mobile phase additives was explored and discussed.

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► ILs is used as the mobile phase additives to determine fangchinoline and tetrandrine.
► Effects of alkylgroup, counterion, concentrations of IL and pH were investigated.
► The mechanism of the separation with ILs as the mobile phase additives was discussed.