Determination of carbohydrates in Folium Lysium Chinensis using capillary electrophoresis combined with far-infrared light irradiation-assisted extraction.

In this work, a method based on capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection and far-infrared-assisted extraction has been developed for the determination of mannitol, sucrose, glucose and fructose in Folium Lysium Chinensis, a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. The water-soluble constituents in the herbal drug were extracted with double distilled water with the assistance of far-infrared radiations. The effects of detection potential, irradiation time, and the voltage applied on the infrared generator were investigated to acquire the optimum analysis conditions. The detection electrode was a 300-μm-diameter copper disk electrode at a detection potential of +0.65 V. The four carbohydrates could be well separated within 18 min in a 50-cm length fused-silica capillary at a separation voltage of 9 kV in a 50-mM NaOH aqueous solution. The relation between peak current and analyte concentration was linear over about three orders of magnitude with detection limits (S/N=3) ranging from 0.66 to 1.15 μM for all analytes. The results indicated that far infrared significantly enhanced the extraction efficiency of the carbohydrates in Folium Lysium Chinensis. The extraction time was significantly reduced to 7 min compared with several hours for conventional hot solvent extraction.