TY - JOUR
T1 - Assay of free ferulic acid and total ferulic acid for quality assessment of Angelica sinensis
AU - Lu, Guang Hua
AU - Chan, Kelvin
AU - LEUNG, Kelvin S Y
AU - Chan, Chi Leung
AU - ZHAO, Zhongzhen
AU - JIANG, Zhi Hong
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Chun-Hu Zhuan (Gansu Shengtai Traditional Chinese Medicine Development, Gansu, China), Professor Xiao-Rui Liu (Agriculture Center of Dinxi District, Gansu, China), and Professor Liang Li (Institute of Mianyang Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan, China), Professor Hao Zhang (West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China) for collecting some herb samples. The project was supported by the Faculty Research Grant of Hong Kong Baptist University (FRG/00-01/II-83) and the Key Science and Technology Programme of Sichuan Province (02SG011-064), China.
PY - 2005/3/18
Y1 - 2005/3/18
N2 - Activity of Chinese Danggui (DG), the processed root of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, is linked to the ferulic acid content but the stability of ferulic acid during extraction for medicinal use is not known. The stabilities of ferulic acid and coniferyl ferulate were evaluated in the extracts of DG using a variety of extraction solvents. These included various combinations and proportions of methanol, water, formic acid, 1 M aqueous hydrochloric acid and 2% sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO3) in water. Coniferyl ferulate was found liable to hydrolyze into ferulic acid in neutral, strongly acidic and basic solvents, where heat and water could facilitate this hydrolysis. However, the hydrolysis was relatively resisted in weakly organic acid. Based on the stability evaluation, two new terms, namely: free ferulic acid and total ferulic acid, were suggested and defined. Free ferulic acid refers to the natural content of ferulic acid in herbs. Total ferulic acid means the sum of free ferulic acid plus the amount of related hydrolyzed components. Meanwhile, the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed to assay free ferulic acid and total ferulic acid in DG using methanol-formic acid (95:5) and methanol-2% NaHCO3 in water (95:5) as extraction solvents, respectively. Ten DG samples were investigated on their contents of free and total ferulic acid. The results indicated that the amount variety of free ferulic acid was larger than that of their counterparts, and the ratio of total ferulic acid to free ferulic acid was 4.07 ± 2.73 (mean ± SD, n = 10). The chemical assay of DG using total ferulic acid content would be a better choice to assess the herbal quality and was recommended.
AB - Activity of Chinese Danggui (DG), the processed root of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, is linked to the ferulic acid content but the stability of ferulic acid during extraction for medicinal use is not known. The stabilities of ferulic acid and coniferyl ferulate were evaluated in the extracts of DG using a variety of extraction solvents. These included various combinations and proportions of methanol, water, formic acid, 1 M aqueous hydrochloric acid and 2% sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO3) in water. Coniferyl ferulate was found liable to hydrolyze into ferulic acid in neutral, strongly acidic and basic solvents, where heat and water could facilitate this hydrolysis. However, the hydrolysis was relatively resisted in weakly organic acid. Based on the stability evaluation, two new terms, namely: free ferulic acid and total ferulic acid, were suggested and defined. Free ferulic acid refers to the natural content of ferulic acid in herbs. Total ferulic acid means the sum of free ferulic acid plus the amount of related hydrolyzed components. Meanwhile, the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed to assay free ferulic acid and total ferulic acid in DG using methanol-formic acid (95:5) and methanol-2% NaHCO3 in water (95:5) as extraction solvents, respectively. Ten DG samples were investigated on their contents of free and total ferulic acid. The results indicated that the amount variety of free ferulic acid was larger than that of their counterparts, and the ratio of total ferulic acid to free ferulic acid was 4.07 ± 2.73 (mean ± SD, n = 10). The chemical assay of DG using total ferulic acid content would be a better choice to assess the herbal quality and was recommended.
KW - Angelica sinensis
KW - Coniferyl ferulate
KW - Ferulic acid
KW - HPLC
KW - Pharmaceutical analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=14844339927&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chroma.2005.01.082
DO - 10.1016/j.chroma.2005.01.082
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 15830926
AN - SCOPUS:14844339927
SN - 0021-9673
VL - 1068
SP - 209
EP - 219
JO - Journal of Chromatography A
JF - Journal of Chromatography A
IS - 2
ER -