[Separation of water-soluble active components in Salvia miltiorrhiza bge. f. alba using capillary zone electrophoresis].

To establish a high performance capillary zone electrophoretic method for the separation of water-soluble active components, protocatechuic aldehyde (PAH), danshensu (DSS), and protocatechuic acid (PA), in Salvia miltiorrhiza bge. f. alba, many factors that can affect the resolution and the migration time, including the concentration of phosphate-borax buffer, pH value, separation voltage and detection wavelength were investigated. The optimized conditions were as follows: uncoated capillary column, 75 microm x 60.2 cm (effective length of 50 cm); column temperature, 25 degrees C; detection wavelength of the photo-diode-array detector, 210 nm; injection, 3.45 kPa x 4 s; separation voltage, 27.5 kV; running buffer, 5 mmol/L borax (pH 7.5). Under the optimized conditions, good separation of PAH, DSS and PA can be achieved in less than 8 min.