Determination of Tanshinones in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Coulometric Electrode Array System

Abstract

A method was developed for the determination of tanshiones (Cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, and tanshinone IIA) in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (S. miltiorrhiza Bunge) using high performance liquid chromatography with the coulometric electrode array system (HPLC-CEAD). The analysis was carried out on a column of Hypersil C18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) with a mobile phase of sodium acetate (pH 2.8, 50 mM) and acetonitrile in the proportion of 45:55. Detection potentials of four electrodes in series were set at − 600, − 400, 100, and 500 mV, respectively. The pH of the mobile phase and the proportion of acetonitrile were optimized in this work. Calibration curves showed good linearity with correlation coefficients of more than 0.9979, the average recoveries of tanshiones were more than 94%, and the relative standard deviations were less than 5.3%. The HPLC-CEAD method was stable, sensitive, and reproducible for the determination of tanshiones S. miltiorrhiza Bunge.