Capillary Electrophoresis Chemiluminescence for the Analysis of Flavonoids in Pharmaceuticals and Human Plasma

A capillary electrophoresis (CE)-chemiluminescence (CL) method has been developed for the determination of the pharmacologically active flavonoids, including rutin and quercetin in pharmaceuticals and human plasma containing Ginkgo biloba leaves extract (EGb). The separation was conducted in borate buffer and luminol. The post-column CL reagent was K₃Fe(CN)₆ in NaOH medium. Rutin and quercetin were baseline separated within 10 min with detection limits of 1.0 and 5.0 nM, respectively. The maximum intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations (RSD) of migration time of analytes were <3.5 %. Moreover, the high selectivity of the CL detection and the high-separation efficiency of CE render the method the potential of quick analyzing the pharmacologically active substances in complex matrix with satisfactory results.