Capillary Electrophoretic Method for Determination of Matrine in Caco‐2 Cell Medium

Abstract

A capillary electrophoretic (CE) method has been developed for the analysis of matrine in a biological medium. The optimized run buffer solution contained 200 mM tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, 40 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate, and 20% 2‐propanol, adjusted to pH 5.8 using phosphoric acid. A voltage of 25 kV was applied across a capillary (50 µm × 40 cm, distance to detector: 10.2 cm) for CE separation. Each analysis was completed in less than 5 min. Linearity of matrine calibration in the concentration range of 3.2–185 µg/mL (at the detection wavelength of 214 nm) was excellent (R 2 = 0.9994). The run‐to‐run repeatability (n = 3), as expressed by the relative standard deviation (RSD), was found to be better than 4.0%. The limit of detection was estimated to be 3.2 µg/mL. This CE method was employed to determine matrine in Caco‐2 cell media after transport of matrine through the cells.