Simultaneous determination of eleven bioactive compounds in Saururus chinensis from different harvesting seasons by HPLC-DAD

A high performance liquid chromatography method coupled with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) was developed for simultaneous determination of five major active flavonoids, two aristolactams and four main lignans in Saururus chinensis, namely rutin (1), isoquercitrin (2), quercetin-3-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl (1 → 4)-α-l-rhamnoside (3), quercitrin (4), quercetin (5), aristolactam A II (6), sauristolactam (7), dihydroguaiaretic acid (8), sauchinone (9), licarin A (10) and licarin B (11). The analysis was performed on an Agilent Eclipse XDB C18 column (4.6 mm × 150 mm, 5 μm) with gradient elution of 0.4% aqueous phosphoric acid and acetonitrile. The detection wavelengths were 280 and 360 nm. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r2 > 0.9991) within test ranges. The method was reproducible with intra- and inter-day variation less than 3.2%. The recovery of the assay was in the range of 95.1–103.9%. The validated method was successfully applied for the analysis of the eleven bioactive compounds in seven samples from different harvesting seasons and significant variations were revealed. The results indicated that the developed method can be used as a suitable quality control method for S. chinensis and it should be harvested in August (fruiting period) for Jiangsu cultivation regions, taking the yield into consideration, with the highest amounts of lignans, relative higher amounts of flavonoids and lower amounts of aristolactams.