Analysis of three effective components in Fructus corni and its preparations by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography.

An efficient micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography method was developed to analyze three major active components including morroniside, loganin and gallic acid in Fructus corni and its six preparations for the first time. The factors that could affect the separation were studied, such as the pH of the buffer, concentrations of SDS, organic modifier and beta-CD, and the applied voltage. The optimum analysis conditions were 10 mmol/L NaH(2)PO(4)-5 mmol/L Na(2)B(4)O(7) (pH 6.8) buffer containing 140 mmol/L SDS, 1 mmol/L beta-CD, 5% (v/v) methanol and 12.5 kV applied voltage. The linearity between the peak-areas and the concentrations of the analytes were investigated, and they exhibit excellent linear behavior over the concentration ranges (correlation coefficients 0.9953-0.9995). In addition, the pK(a) of gallic acid was determined using capillary zone electrophoresis. The result was consistent with that reported by the literature. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.