Abstract

A novel method for analysis of three active components curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin in Curcuma longa L. was developed by HPLC coupled with electrochemical detection. Three curcuminoids were well separated on a C18 column and detected with high sensitivity. A mobile phase containing acetonitrile and 10 mM Na2HPO4–H3PO4 (pH 5.0) (50:50, v/v) was used. Good linearity was obtained in the range of 0.208–41.6, 0.197–39.4, and 0.227–114 μM for curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin respectively. The limit of detection reached up to 10?8 M, which was lower than that by UV detection. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranged from 1.06% to 1.88% for intra-day precision and from 4.30% to 5.79% for inter-day precision, respectively. The proposed method has been applied in real herb sample and recoveries ranging from 86.3% to 111% were obtained.

Standards of curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin were purchased from Chengdu Herbpurify Co., Ltd. (HPLC grade, ≥98%, Chengdu, China).