Quality control of a herbal medicinal preparation using high-performance liquid chromatographic and capillary electrophoretic methods

Two methods based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) were developed for the quality control of “samgiumgagambang” (SGMX), a new herbal medicinal preparation containing 14 herbs. Nine components from SGMX were selected as markers: 5-hydroxymethylfuraldehyde, geniposidic acid, chlorogenic acid, paeoniflorin, 20-hydroxyecdysone, coptisine, berberine, luteolin, and glycyrrhizic acid. The markers were identified and analyzed using HPLC coupled with a UV-diode-array detector and monitored at 250 nm with a gradient elution of acetonitrile and water containing formic acid on a C18 analytical column or using CE with a 70 mM borate buffer (pH 9.5) containing 10% methanol on a 60-cm fused silica capillary monitored at 230 nm. The marker components in SGMX were well separated using both methods and were readily determined within 60 min using HPLC or 13 min using CE with good precision and accuracy.