A simple and reliable analytical method based on HPLC–UV to determine oleanonic acid content in Chios gum mastic for quality control

• Published in: Archives of pharmacal research Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 49 - 56
• Main Authors: Jin, Yan, Zhao, Jing, Jeong, Kyung Min, Yoo, Da Eun, Han, Se Young, Choi, Su-Young, Ko, Dong-Hyeon, Kim, Hyun-ji, Sung, Na-Hye, Lee, Jeongmi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Pharmaceutical Society of Korea 01.01.2017; 대한약학회
• Subjects: acetonitrile; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical - methods; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical - standards; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - standards; high performance liquid chromatography; Mastic Resin - analysis; Mastic Resin - chemistry; Medicine; methanol; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Pharmacy; Quality Control; Reproducibility of Results; Research Article; Triterpenes - analysis; Triterpenes - chemistry; wavelengths; 약학; Chios gum mastic; Method validation; Quality control; Oleanonic acid
• ISSN: 0253-6269; 1976-3786; 1976-3786
• DOI: 10.1007/s12272-016-0853-2

A reliable analytical method based on high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection was established for the determination of oleanonic acid (OA) content in Chios gum mastic (CGM). A simple method involving methanol extraction of CGM powder followed by basification and ether extraction was developed to isolate the triterpenic fraction including OA. The triterpenic fraction was chromatographed on a Phenomenex Gemini C 18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) under a simple gradient elution of a mobile phase containing acetonitrile and water at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min −1 . The detection wavelength was set at 210 nm. Good linearity was achieved in the range of 100.0–1000.0 μg mL −1 with r 2  > 0.9993, and the limit of quantification was 32.22 μg mL −1 . Accuracy measured at three concentration levels was in the range of 93.72–99.56%, while intra-day and inter-day precisions estimated using both OA standard and CGM samples were no more than 2.83 and 4.57% RSD, respectively. Finally, this method was applied to real CGM samples from various batches, revealing that the OA contents were between 88.13 and 100.83 μg mg −1 . These results suggest that the current method can be applied as an efficient analytical method for quality control of CGM.