High-performance liquid chromatography for quantification of plumbagin, an anti-Helicobacter pylori compound of Plumbago zeylanica L.

The plant Plumbago zeylanica L. is a semi-climbing shrub that grows throughout Asia and Africa. In our previous study, P. zeylanica L. exhibited high anti-Helicobacter pylori and good bactericidal activities over a wide pH range (pH 2-7). Plumbagin - the major ingredient derived from the roots of P. zeylanica L. - is a naphthoquinone compound. In this study, we investigated plumbagin's anti-H. pylori activity and developed a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for quantification of plumbagin from P. zeylanica L. We also observed that plumbagin has strong anti-H. pylori activity, with 0.02-0.16 mg/ml as minimum inhibitory concentrations and 0.16-1.28 mg/ml as minimum bactericidal concentrations. Reversed-phase HPLC was performed with a gradient mobile phase composed of water and methanol, and peaks were detected at 254 nm. Standard curves were linearized in the range of from 10 to 200 μg/ml (regression coefficient r2 = 0.99995). After spikes of 50, 100, and 150 μg/ml of plumbagin standard solution, recovery rates were between 97.45 and 99.24%. Both intra- and inter-day precisions had coefficient variation of less than 1% at concentrations of 50, 100, and 150 μg/ml. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.02 and 0.06 μg/ml, respectively. Based on validation results, this analytical method is a precise, accurate and stable method to quantify plumbagin derived from P. zeylanica L.