Preconcentration of Phenolic Compounds on Carbon Sorbents and Their Chromatographic Determination in Aqueous Extracts of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

A possibility of using carbon sorbents for the extraction, preconcentration, and chromatographic determination of phenolic substances of plant origin is investigated. A method is proposed for the preconcentration of biologically active substances from extracts of medicinal plants with carbon sorbents followed by the desorption of analytes with organic solvents at elevated temperature and pressure. Some sorption characteristics of carbon materials Supelclean ENVI-Carb and HyperSep Hypercarb in relation to phenolcarboxylic acids and flavonoids isolated from aqueous extracts of St. John’s Wort Hypericum perforatum L. are studied. The conditions of the sorption and desorption of analytes of various classes are optimized. A possibility of using carbon sorbents for the extraction and preconcentration of phenolic substances from aqueous extracts of various medicinal plants is shown using an examples of creeping thyme Thymus serpyllum L. and sage Salvia officinalis L.