OBJECITVE: To established an efficient method for simultaneous quantification of 7 compounds belonging to 4 chemical types in Psoralea corylifolia processed by different methods, and to elucidate variations of 4 kinds of compounds in different processed P. corylifolia.
Method: The chromatographic separation was performed on an ACUITY C18 column using acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution in the gradient elution at 0.4 mL x min(-1). Detection wavelength was set at 246 nm. Column temperature was fixed at 50 degrees C.
Result: The 4 kinds of compounds including psoralenoside, isopsoralenoside (benzofuran glycosides), psoralen, isopsoralen, psoralidin (coumarins), bavachin (flavonoids), and bakuchiol (meroterpenes) were separated in 25 min. The correlation coefficients of those compounds were over 0.9993 in the tested range. The intra- and inter-day precisions were below 1.5%. The average recoveries ranged from 99.2% to 106%.
Conclusion: This method is simple, rapid and accurate, which can be used for the determination of the 4 kinds of compounds in different processed P. corylifolia. In P. corylifolia processed by different methods, the contents of benzofuran glycosides, flavonoids, and meroterpenes in P. corylifolia processed by Leigong's method decrease obviously, while the contents of psoralen and isopsoralen increase significantly.