Simultaneous determination of key bioactive components in Hedyotis diffusa by capillary electrophoresis

A capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method based on systematic one-variable-at-a time approach was developed for the analysis of four important bioactive components (geniposidic acid, ursolic acid, quercetin and p-coumaric acid) in the extract of Hedyotis diffusa (HD). Separations were carried out in a fused-silica capillary tube with peak detection at 214 nm. Good separation was achieved using a 20 mM borate buffer containing 5% acetonitrile as organic modifier and pH adjusted to 10.0. Operating voltage was 15 kV and temperature was maintained at 25 °C while hydrodynamic injection was 5 s. A good linearity, with correlation coefficients in the ranges of 0.997–0.999 was obtained in the calibration curves of each standard. Relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) of migration time was between 0.32 and 0.70% and deviation of corrected peak area was between 8.84 and 11.99%. These results indicate that this method could be used for rapid and simultaneous analysis of the bioactive components in HD and other herbal products.