Quantitative determination of usnic acid in Usnea lichen and its products by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector

Usnic acid, a lichen substance, has a wide range of pharmaceutical applications, including antibiotic, antimycotic, antifeedant, antitubercular, antitumor, and analgesic activities. Some products containing usnic acid are marketed as weight control supplements; however, hepatotoxicity and acute liver failures were reported as severe side effects. The usnic acid content present in the plant materials and market products was analyzed by reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography with a photodiode array detector at 233 nm. A Waters XTerra RP18 (150 x 4.6 mm; 5 microm particle size) column was the stationary phase; mobile phase was aqueous 0.1% acetic acid and acetonitrile gradient at flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The temperature was held constant at 30 degrees C. The retention time of usnic acid was approximately 13.3 min. Acetone extraction of the samples took place with sonication. The precision of the method was confirmed by a standard deviation below 3.0% (n=3) and usnic acid recovery was 99.0%. Limit of detection was 0.4 microg/mL and the response was linear from 1.4 to 570.0 microg/mL with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9991. The content of usnic acid in 4 raw materials and 22 finished products was analyzed.