Simultaneous determination of four bioactive constituents in Liuwei Dihuang Pills by micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

A micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method for the simultaneous determination of four bioactive constituents (morroniside, loganin, paeoniflorin and paeonal) in the Chinese patent medicine Liuwei Dihuang Pills is established. A carrier composed of 0.2M boric acid, 0.02 M sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 5% acetonitrile (pH was adjusted to 10.5 with 0.1 M NaOH) is found to be the most suitable electrolyte for this separation. The four constituents in Liuwei Dihuang Pills can be easily determined within 16 min. Optimization of separation is realized with the univariate approach by studying the effects of four factors relevant to run buffer on migration times.