Modified normal-phase ion-pair chromatographic methods for the facile separation and purification of imidazolium-based ionic compounds

Imidazolium- and oligo(imidazolium)-based ionic organic compounds are important in the design of room-temperature ionic liquid materials; however, the chromatographic analysis and separation of such compounds are often difficult. A convenient and inexpensive method for effective thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis and column chromatography separation of imidazolium-based ionic compounds is presented. Normal-phase ion-pair TLC is used to effectively analyze homologous mixtures of these ionic compounds. Subsequent separation of the mixtures is performed using ion-pair flash chromatography on normal-phase silica gel, yielding high levels of recovery. This method also results in a complete exchange of the counter anion on the imidazolium compounds to the anion of the ion-pair reagent.     

Quality control and discrimination of pericarpium citri reticulatae and pericarpium citri reticulatae viride based on high-performance liquid chromatographic fingerprints and multivariate statistical analysis

High-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprints of Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae (PCR) and Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae Viride (PCRV) were firstly measured for deliberately collected 39 authentic samples and 21 commercial samples. Both correlation coefficients of similarity for chromatograms and absolute peak areas of characteristic compounds were calculated for quantitative expression of the HPLC fingerprints. After principal component analysis (PCA) successfully distinguished the ‘mixed peels’ samples from authentic samples, partial least squares-linear discrimination analysis (PLS-LDA) was then effectively applied to class separation between authentic PCR and PCRV. Furthermore, the unequivocally determined compounds, hesperidin, nobiletin and tangeretin, were screened out by loadings plots of PCA and PLS-LDA. The results indicated that they could be used as chemical markers for discrimination among different groups of samples. The proposed method shows an efficient strategy for quality control of PCR and PCRV, which cannot only distinguish the ‘mixed peels’ but also discriminate authentic PCR and PCRV. This method has potential perspective for quality control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).     

Overpressured Layer Chromatographic (OPLC) Separation of Closely Related Furocoumarins

Abstract

In this paper, an OPLC method for the analytical separation of eight furocoumarins is described. Of the eight compounds investigated, four are linear furocoumarins (psoralen, bergapten, 8-methoxypsoralen, iso-pimpinellin) and four are angular furocoumarins (angelicin, sphondin, iso-bergapten, pimpinellin). In preliminary experiments, optimization of the mobile phase was made using the “PRISMA” model on TLC plates in unsaturated chambers. Evaluation of the final optimization steps for OPLC separations on HPTLC plates was done densitometrically. With the elaborated OPLC system, seven compounds could be baseline separated, and the resolution between iso-bergapten and angelicin was better than 1.3. Application of the method is demonstrated with the analysis of furocoumarin-containing root extracts from Heracleum sphondylium, H. mantegazzianum and Pastinaca sativa.     

Quality assessment of radix salviae miltiorrhizae

This paper describes an improved quality assessment method for Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae (Root of Salvia miltiorrhiza BGE.) which was established using chromatographic fingerprinting and quantification of multiple marker compounds in the crude drug. High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) fingerprinting of water-soluble phenolics and nonpolar tanshinones was performed separately and the authentication of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae was achieved by comparing the fingerprints of the samples with those of the reference crude drug and by comparing the Rf values of the bands in TLC fingerprints with those of reference compounds. HPLC fingerprints were obtained by simultaneous separation of phenolics and diterpenoids in Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae. The HPLC fingerprints of seven batches of samples from different regions of China showed similar chromatographic patterns, and seven peaks were selected as characteristic peaks. The relative retention time of these characteristic peaks in the HPLC fingerprints was established as an important parameter for the identification of this herbal medicine. The pharmacologically active marker compounds salvianolic acid B, rosmarinic acid, and tanshinone IIA in herbal medicine were quantitatively determined using reverse-phase HPLC techniques. The HPLC quantitation methods of the three marker compounds were validated and the measurement uncertainty, which is important for setting the proposed content limit of the marker compounds in herbal medicine, were further evaluated.     

Comprehensive quality evaluation of the lateral root of Aconitum carmichaelii Debx. (Fuzi): Simultaneous determination of nine alkaloids and chemical fingerprinting coupled with chemometric analysis

Amino alcohol alkaloids are the active components in the lateral root of Aconitum carmichaelii Debx. (Fuzi), and they have a variety of pharmacological activities. However, the chemical fingerprints of the ester alkaloids reported to date were mainly obtained from high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet detection, and it is difficult to obtain information about amino alcohol alkaloids in Fuzi from such chromatograms. In this paper, a comprehensive fingerprinting method was established using high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with an evaporative light‐scattering detector for the simultaneous quantitative analysis of both the amino alcohol alkaloids and ester alkaloids. A total of 42 samples of Fuzi from four production areas were analyzed by constructing high‐performance liquid chromatography fingerprints. Then, the quantitative results of the chemical fingerprints combined with chemometrics methods were employed to reveal the factors affecting the geo‐authentic Fuzi and to determine characteristic components that can be used to identify these samples. The results indicated distinct differences in the alkaloid contents among samples from the four regions; the geographical origin may be the primary factor affecting the geo‐authentic Fuzi, and 15 major components (including songorine, neoline, and hypaconitine, which were quantitatively determined) were found to be characteristic components for the discrimination of Fuzi samples from various regions. Neoline might be a critical component for identifying geo‐authentic Fuzi. This approach is convenient, reproducible and provides a promising method for the quality evaluation of Fuzi.     

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic separation of mono- and divinyl chlorophyll forms using pyridine-containing mobile phases and a polymeric octadecylsilica column

Summary The separation of chlorophyll forms was studied employing a wide bore polymeric octadecylsilica column and pyridine containing mobile phases, giving consideration to considering the influence of mobile phase composition and column temperature on the resolution of monovinyl forms from their divinyl analogues. A method involving gradient elution and operating at 15°C is proposed for the separation of several polar and non-polar mono- and divinyl chlorophylls from etiolated tissues of higher plants and from marine phytoplankton. The advantages of pyridine as a mobile phase additive in the reversed-phase liquid chromatography of chlorophylls are discussed.     

Separation of coumarins from Archangelica officinalis in high-performance liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatography systems

Complex, multicomponent mixtures are difficult to separate in a single chromatographic run. Therefore, the possibility to separate twelve coumarins from Archangelica officinalis was studied by combining a HPLC and a TLC system. HPLC optimized by the use of DryLab for Windows software was performed on RP-18 column and TLC was performed on silica plates. Fractions from the RP column were evaporated, applied on silica plate and developed in non-aqueous solvent. Possibilities of complete separation of investigated coumarins were discussed in RP and NP systems. The result of their complete separation was presented by HPLC chromatograms, DryLab simulated chromatograms and a video scan of TLC plate.     

Separation and tentative identification of the main pigment fraction of raisins by thin-layer chromatography-Fourier transform infrared and high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection

The soluble color pigments of raisin are separated by reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography (TLC), and the capacity of TLC-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) with both on-line and off-line coupling is assessed for the identification of the main fraction. TLC has also been used as a pilot technique for the development of a gradient elution method for the separation of pigments by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). On-line TLC-FTIR cannot be used for identification because of the strong adsorbance of the stationary phase. Off-line TLC-FTIR combined with the retention behavior of the main pigment fraction indicates that it is a polymer, caramel-like compound composed of erythrose and fructose monomers. Baseline separation of pigments is achieved by HPLC using TLC as a pilot method.     

Preparative isolation and characterization of zinc dialkyldithiophosphates from commercial antiwear additives

An automated HPLC separation methodology was developed for the preparative separation of ZnDTP components from commercial lubricant antiwear additives. Using silica columns that can be reactivated by elution with appropriate solvents, gram quantities of additives can be isolated. The isolated materials are useful for carrying out further mechanistic and synthetic studies. Preliminary estimations suggest that separation repeatability and fraction recoveries have acceptable levels. Qualitative characterization of isolated ZnDTP mixtures was achieved by IR, TLC‐FID, and RP‐HPLC. IR is useful for assessing the nature of ZnDTP alcoholic moieties. TLC‐FID provides a check on the preparative HPLC separation efficiency. RP‐HPLC on octadecylsil‐silica columns provides fingerprints for isolated commercial ZnDTP active concentrates. Fingerprinting on small bore HPLC columns proved advantageous compared with conventional columns.     

Novel computer-assisted approach to quick prediction and optimization of gradient separation for online enrichment-reversed phase liquid chromatography tandem system

An algorithm capable of predicting and optimizing the gradient separation of LC × LC system was developed in this paper. Two groups of structural analogues, five ginsenosides as well as eight bisphenols,which were difficult to discriminate in routine analysis, were used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in fast separation optimization. Average errors of retention times below 1% were found in the retention prediction for all types of gradient programs, implying that the theory...     

Chromatographic profiles of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phyllanthus</Emphasis> aqueous extracts samples: a proposition of classification using chemometric models

Taking in consideration the global analysis of complex samples, proposed by the metabolomic approach, the chromatographic fingerprint encompasses an attractive chemical characterization of herbal medicines. Thus, it can be used as a tool in quality control analysis of phytomedicines. The generated multivariate data are better evaluated by chemometric analyses, and they can be modeled by classification methods. “Stone breaker” is a popular Brazilian plant of Phyllanthus genus, used worldwide to treat renal calculus, hepatitis, and many other diseases. In this study, gradient elution at reversed-phase conditions with detection at ultraviolet region were used to obtain chemical profiles (fingerprints) of botanically identified samples of six Phyllanthus species. The obtained chromatograms, at 275 nm, were organized in data matrices, and the time shifts of peaks were adjusted using the Correlation Optimized Warping algorithm. Principal Component Analyses were performed to evaluate similarities among cultivated and uncultivated samples and the discrimination among the species and, after that, the samples were used to compose three classification models using Soft Independent Modeling of Class analogy, K-Nearest Neighbor, and Partial Least Squares for Discriminant Analysis. The ability of classification models were discussed after their successful application for authenticity evaluation of 25 commercial samples of “stone breaker.”     

Chemical fingerprint and simultaneous determination of alkaloids and flavonoids in aerial parts of genus Peganum indigenous to China based on HPLC‐UV: application of analysis on secondary metabolites accumulation

The aerial parts of genus Peganum are officially used in traditional Chinese medicine. The paper aims to establish a high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of three alkaloids and two flavonoids in aerial parts of genus Peganum, and to analyze accumulative difference of secondary metabolites in inter‐species, individuals of plants, inter‐/intra‐population and from different growing seasons. HPLC analysis was performed on a C₁₈ column with gradient elution using 0.1% trifloroacetic acid and acetonitrile as mobile phase and detected at 265 nm, by conventional methodology validation. For fingerprint analysis, the RSDs of relative retention time and relative peak area of the characteristic peaks were within 0.07–0.78 and 0.94–9.09%, respectively. For simultaneous determination of vasicine, harmaline, harmine, deacetylpeganetin and peganetin, all calibration curves showed good linearity (r > 0.9990) within the test range. The relative standard deviations of precision, repeatability and stability test did not exceed 2.37, 2.68 and 2.67%, respectively. The average recoveries for the five analytes were between 96.47 and 101.20%. HPLC fingerprints play a minor role in authenticating and differentiating the herbs of different species of genus Peganum. However, the secondary metabolites levels of alkaloids and flavonoids in aerial parts of genus Peganum rely on species‐, habitat‐, and growth season‐dependent accumulation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detection of Actaea racemosa adulteration by thin-layer chromatography and combined thin-layer chromatography-bioluminescence

Actaea racemosa L. (black cohosh; syn. Cimicifuga racemosa L. Nutt.) is a native North American perennial whose root and rhizome preparations are commercially available as phytomedicines and dietary supplements, primarily for management of menopausal symptoms. Despite its wide use, methods that accurately identify processed A. racemosa are not well established; product adulteration remains a concern. Because of its similar appearance and growing locales, A. racemosa has been unintentionally mixed with other species of the genus, such as Actaea pachypoda Ell. (white cohosh) and more commonly Actaea podocarpa DC. (yellow cohosh). The genus Actaea also has 23 temperate species with numerous common names, which can also contribute to the misidentification of plant material. Consequently, a variety of Actaea spp. are common adulterants of commercially available black cohosh preparations. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and combined TLC-bioluminescence (Bioluminex) are efficient, economical, and effective techniques which provide characteristic patterns and toxicity profiles for each plant species. These data indicate that common black cohosh adulterants, such as yellow cohosh, can be differentiated from black cohosh by TLC and TLC-bioluminescence. This study also showed that unknown contaminants that were not detected using standard A. racemosa identity techniques were readily detected by TLC and TLC-bioluminescence.     

Speciation fingerprints of binary mixtures by optimized repeated two-phase separation

A method for determination of the composition of binary mixtures of a metal or radionuclide species by optimized repeated two-phase separations (SORTS) was proposed and theoretically substantiated. Its principle consists in repeated equilibration of two immiscible phases, one being the original liquid or solid matrix with minimal adjustment of its composition and varying the phase ratio (separation stage cut) as the optimized parameter. The batch separation technique may consist in the repeated solvent extraction or aqueous biphasic distribution, or in the replicate equilibration with solvent or leaching solution. Results of SORTS can be presented e.g. by Tukey box diagrams as the characteristic fingerprints of original species composition.     

DC-dielectrophoretic separation of microparticles using an oil droplet obstacle

A new dielectrophoretic particle separation method is demonstrated and examined in the following experimental study. Current electrodeless dielectrophoretic (DEP) separation techniques utilize insulating solid obstacles in a DC or low-frequency AC field, while this novel method employs an oil droplet acting as an insulating hurdle between two electrodes. When particles move in a non-uniform DC field locally formed by the droplet, they are exposed to a negative DEP force linearly dependent on their volume, which allows the particle separation by size. Since the size of the droplet can be dynamically changed, the electric field gradient, and hence DEP force, becomes easily controllable and adjustable to various separation parameters. By adjusting the droplet size, particles of three different diameter sizes, 1 microm, 5.7 microm and 15.7 microm, were successfully separated in a PDMS microfluidic chip, under applied field strength in the range from 80 V cm-1 to 240 V cm-1. A very effective separation was realized at the low field strength, since the electric field gradient was proved to be a more significant parameter for particle discrimination than the applied voltage. By utilizing low strength fields and adaptable field gradient, this method can also be applied to the separation of biological samples that are generally very sensitive to high electric potential.     

Information theory applied to chromatographic fingerprint of herbal medicine for quality control

At present, the construction of chromatographic fingerprints plays an important role in the quality control of complex herbal medicines. In this work, information theory was applied to obtain chromatographic fingerprints with good performance. Moreover, according to the characteristics of the chromatographic fingerprints obtained, some modifications of the calculation of the information content were conducted. In comparison with the information content from several chromatographic fingerprints obtained, reliable chromatographic fingerprints with a high separation degree and uniform concentration distribution of chemical components could be determined. The successful application of information theory with modification to simulated chromatographic fingerprints together with real herbal medicines such as Rhizoma chuanxiong and Ginkgo biloba from different sources demonstrated clearly that the proposed method to determine chromatographic fingerprints was reasonable and reliable and it was user-friendly. Chromatographic fingerprints determined with high separation degrees and uniform concentration distribution of chemical ingredients might also chemically represent characteristic components of herbal medicines for quality control.     

High‐performance liquid chromatography based chemical fingerprint analysis and chemometric approaches for the identification and distinction of three endangered Panax plants in Southeast Asia

Among Panax genus, only three endangered species Panax notoginseng, P. vietnamensis, and P. stipuleanatus that have a similar morphology are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia. These three plants are usually misidentified or adulterated. To identify them well, their chemical chromatographic fingerprints were established by an effective high‐performance liquid chromatography method. By comparing the chromatograms, the three Panax species could be distinguished easily using the 22 characteristic peaks. Besides, the data of the chromatographic fingerprints aided by chemometric approaches were applied for the identification and investigation the relationship of different samples and species. Using similarity analysis, the chemical components revealed higher similarity between P. vietnamensis and P. stipuleanatus. The results of hierarchical clustering analysis indicated that samples belonging to the same species could be clustered together. The result of principal component analysis was similar with hierarchical clustering analysis and the three principal components accounted for >80.5% of total variability.     

Identification of species’ blood by attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy

Blood is one of the most common and informative forms of biological evidence found at a crime scene. A very crucial step in forensic investigations is identifying a blood stain’s origin. The standard methods currently employed for analyzing blood are destructive to the sample and time-consuming. In this study, attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is used as a confirmatory, nondestructive, and rapid method for distinction between human and animal (nonhuman) blood. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were built and demonstrated complete separation between human and animal donors, as well as distinction between three separate species: human, cat, and dog. Classification predictions of unknown blood donors were performed by the model, resulting in 100 % accuracy. This study demonstrates ATR FT-IR spectroscopy’s great potential for blood stain analysis and species discrimination, both in the lab and at a crime scene since portable ATR FT-IR instrumentation is commercially available.     

Ganoderma species discrimination by dual-mode chromatographic fingerprinting: A study on stationary phase effects in hydrophilic interaction chromatography and reduction of sample misclassification rate by additional use of reversed-phase chromatography

Acetonitrile–water extracts of several Ganoderma species – a mushroom being used in Traditional Chinese Medicine – were analysed by liquid chromatography–UV detection in hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-phase (RP) elution modes. A set of six polar stationary phases was used for HILIC runs. These columns had remarkably different separation properties under binary gradient conditions as evinced by hierarchical cluster analysis on retention patterns of seven test compounds. Complementary measurements of RP chromatograms were carried out on a C₁₈ packing. Injection precision (n = 5) and intra-day precision (n = 5) were each <2.0% RSD (HILIC) and <0.7% RSD (RP) for relative retention times of main characteristic peaks of a sample extract while for relative peak areas RSD values were max. 6.8%. Repetitive analysis (n = 7) of a processed sample stored in the autosampler tray for 48 h was used to confirm within-sequence sample stability. Eleven Ganoderma lucidum samples served as training set for the construction of column-specific simulated mean chromatograms. Validation with twelve samples comprising G. lucidum, Ganoderma sinense, Ganoderma atrum, and Ganoderma tsugae by correlation coefficient based similarity evaluation of peak patterns showed that a discrimination of G. lucidum from other Ganoderma species by means of chromatographic fingerprints is conceptually possible on all columns, except of a bare silica packing. The importance of the combined use of RP and HILIC fingerprints to improve the rate of correct sample classification was demonstrated by the fact that each one G. sinense specimen was wrongly assigned being G. lucidum by all HILIC fingerprints but not the RP fingerprint and vice versa. The present data revealed that (i) the analysis of complex biological materials by quasi orthogonal chromatographic modes such as HILIC and RP may deliver more discriminative information than single-mode approaches which strengthens the reliability of fingerprint-based sample classification and (ii) different retention and selectivity characteristics of polar bonded silica packings in the HILIC elution mode may only have a minor impact on chemometric sample discrimination capabilities in such kind of pattern-oriented metabolomics separation problems.     

HPTLC Method for Determination of 20-Hydroxyecdysone in Sida rhombifolia L. and Dietary Supplements

Naturally occurring 20-hydroxyecdysone is an important anabolic ecdysteroid. A simple thin-layer chromatography method to quantitate 20-hydroxyecdysone in methanolic extract of the whole plant material of Sida rhombifolia L. was developed. This method was successfully applied for quantitative evaluation of dietary supplements. The separation was achieved on glass TLC plates coated with silica gel 60F254, using chloroform: methanol (8:2 v/v) as developing solvent. Densitometric evaluation of 20-hydroxyecdysone was performed at 250 nm in reflectance/absorbance mode. The calibration was in the range of 200–1,000 ng spot^?1 and correlation coefficient for the calibration curve was >0.999. In addition, for six different Sida species unique fingerprints were obtained on the HPTLC plate.