Application of reverse-flow micellar electrokinetic chromatography for the simultaneous determination of flavonols and terpene trilactones in Ginkgo biloba dosage forms

A reverse-flow micellar electrokinetic chromatographic (RF-MEKC) method was developed for the simultaneous qualitative determination of 10 components consisting of the flavonol glycosides, rutin and quercitrin, the flavonol aglycones, isorhamnetin, kaempferol and quercetin, the terpene trilactones, ginkgolides A, B, C and J and the sesquiterpene, bilobalide. This method was used to fingerprint Ginkgo biloba solid oral dosage forms and validated for the quantitation of the marker compounds, rutin and quercetin in some commercial products. In addition to the usual variables, the influence of some essential background electrolyte (BGE) components such as sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and -cyclodextrin concentrations were investigated. A polyimide fused-silica square capillary column (75 μm I.D. × 360 μm O.D.) with a total length of 60.0 cm and effective length of 45.0 cm was used for the separation. The final BGE consisted of 20 mM phosphoric acid, 40 mM SDS and 12 mM -cyclodextrin (pH 2.2) using reverse polarity with a voltage of −17.5 kV. Samples were injected electrokinetically at −5 kV for 3 s for the qualitative analysis and hydrodynamically at 20 mbar for 0.6 s for the quantitative assay. The total run time was 22 min and the limits of detection were 3.13 μg/ml and 1.88 μg/ml for rutin and quercetin, respectively. Fingerprint profiles of the solid oral dosage forms and the results of the quantitative analysis indicated that there were major discrepancies in the marker content between products and illustrates the value of this method for use as a procedure to assess product quality of commercially available Ginkgo biloba products.