INTRODUCTION: The fruit bodies of Fomes officinalis are used for the treatment of coughs, gastric cancer, rheumatism and hydropsia; however, no method is currently available to assess the quality of this medicinal fungus based on quantitative profile of its main triterpenes. OBJECTIVE: To develop a simple and accurate HPLC-UV method for the simultaneous quantification of five lanostane-type triterpenes in the fruit bodies of F. officinalis. METHOD: Separations were performed on an Agilent Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C(18) column by gradient elution using acetonitrile : formic acid. Analytes were identified by HPLC coupled with electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry experiments. The quantitative HPLC-UV method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy and limits of detection and quantification. RESULTS: Calibration curves presented good linear regression (r > 0.9996) within test ranges. The relative standard deviation of this method was less than 1.7% for intra- and inter-day assays and overall recoveries were 96.4-104.1% for the five compounds analysed. The method was successfully applied to the quantification of five triterpenes in 16 samples of F. officinalis collected from different regions. CONCLUSION: The developed assay could be considered as a suitable quality control method for F. officinalis.
INTRODUCTION: The fruit bodies of Fomes officinalis are used for the treatment of coughs, gastric cancer, rheumatism and hydropsia; however, no method is currently available to assess the quality of this medicinal fungus based on quantitative profile of its main triterpenes. OBJECTIVE: To develop a simple and accurate HPLC-UV method for the simultaneous quantification of five lanostane-type triterpenes in the fruit bodies of F. officinalis. METHOD: Separations were performed on an Agilent Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C(18) column by gradient elution using acetonitrile : formic acid. Analytes were identified by HPLC coupled with electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry experiments. The quantitative HPLC-UV method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy and limits of detection and quantification. RESULTS: Calibration curves presented good linear regression (r > 0.9996) within test ranges. The relative standard deviation of this method was less than 1.7% for intra- and inter-day assays and overall recoveries were 96.4-104.1% for the five compounds analysed. The method was successfully applied to the quantification of five triterpenes in 16 samples of F. officinalis collected from different regions. CONCLUSION: The developed assay could be considered as a suitable quality control method for F. officinalis.