Differentiation of Resina Draconis from Sanguis Draconis by CE

Abstract

A simple, accurate method based on capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection (CE–ED) has been developed to determine loureirin A, loureirin B and dracorhodin for differentiation of Resina Draconis from Sanguis Draconis. The effects of some important factors such as acidity and concentration of running buffer, separation voltage, injection time, and applied potential on the CE–ED working electrode were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, the three analytes could be well separated within 30 min in a 75 cm capillary at a separation voltage of 14 kV in a 80 mmol L−1 borate buffer (pH 9.24). The working electrode was a 300-μm-diameter carbon disc electrode positioned opposite the outlet of the capillary in a wall-jet configuration and was set at a potential of 0.90 V (vs. SCE). Excellent linearity was established over two orders of magnitude with detection limits (S/N = 3) ranging from 3 × 10−7 g mL−1 to 1 × 10−6 g mL−1 for all three analytes. The relative standard deviations of peak current and migration times of loureirin A, loureirin B and dracorhodin were 2.1, 1.7, 4.4 and 2.9, 2.8, 3.3% (n = 5), respectively. The recoveries of three constituents ranged from 98.8 to 101.8%. The methodology has been successfully applied to analyze and differentiate the actual samples with satisfactory assay results.