Determination of glycyrrhizin in Chinese prescriptions and biological samples by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

In the work described on this paper, a highly specific and sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the determination of glycyrrhizin (GL) was developed. To demonstrate the potential of the ELISA, a preliminary pharmacokinetic study of GL in rats and quantitative analysis of GL in several Chinese prescriptions were performed and compared with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The experimental data indicated that ELISA method exhibits more advantages over HPLC, such as lower detection limit, high specificity, low background and no requirement of sample pre-treatment, and more suitable for the determination of natural components in Chinese traditional medicines.