Capillary electrophoretic separation of phenolic diterpenes from rosemary.

The major phenolic diterpenes responsible for the antioxidant properties of rosemary extracts, namely carnosol and carnosic acid, were separated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) using a 56 cm long uncoated fused-silica capillary and a 50 mM disodium tetraborate buffer of pH 10.1. The effect of the buffer type, pH and concentration, and the capillary length on the separation, was studied. Carnosol and carnosic acid were identified in the electrophoregrams of rosemary extracts through their migration times and UV spectra obtained by CZE analysis of pure compounds isolated from a rosemary extract by HPLC fractionation. The CZE method had good reproducibility (relative standard deviation less than 5%) and was applied to compare the contents of carnosol and carnosic acid in solid and oil-dispersed commercial extracts of rosemary and in rosemary leaves. The separation of carnosol and carnosic acid was accomplished in less than 11 min.