Simultaneous reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of diosmin, hesperidin and naringin in different citrus fruit juices and pharmaceutical formulations.

Diosmin, hesperidin and naringin are flavonoid glycosides that occur naturally in citrus fruits. They exert a variety of pharmacological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and free radical scavenging and antiulcer effects and also inhibit selected cytochrome P-450 enzymes resulting in drug interactions. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of diosmin, hesperidin and naringin in different citrus fruit juices and pharmaceutical preparations. Diosmin, hesperidin, naringin and the internal standard rhoifolin were separated using tetrahydrofuran/water/acetic acid (21:77:2, v/v/v) as the mobile phase at 34 degrees C, using a C8 reversed-phase column. The method was linear in the 0.25-20.0 microg/ml concentration range for all three flavonoid glycosides (r>0.999). The method has been successfully applied to the determination of all three flavonoid glycosides in several samples of different citrus fruit juices sold in Greece and for the determination of diosmin and hesperidin in pharmaceutical preparations.