Liquid chromatographic determination of sennosides in Cassia angustifolia leaves

A simple liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of sennosides B and A in leaves of Cassia angustifolia. These compounds were extracted from leaves with a mixture of methanol-water (70 + 30, v/v) after defatting with hexane. Analyte separation and quantitation were achieved by gradient reversed-phase liquid chromatography and UV absorbance at 270 nm using a photodiode array detector. The method involves the use of an RP-18 Lichrocart reversed-phase column (5 microm, 125 x 4.0 mm id) and a binary gradient mobile-phase profile. The various other aspects of analysis, namely, peak purity, similarity, recovery, repeatability, and robustness, were validated. Average recoveries of 98.5 and 98.6%, with a coefficient of variation of 0.8 and 0.3%, were obtained by spiking sample solution with 3 different concentration solutions of standards (60, 100, and 200 microg/mL). Detection limits were 10 microg/mL for sennoside B and 35 microg/mL for sennoside A, present in the sample solution. The quantitation limits were 28 and 100 microg/mL. The analytical method was applied to a large number of senna leaf samples. The new method provides a reliable tool for rapid screening of C. angustifolia samples in large numbers, which is needed in breeding/genetic engineering and genetic mapping experiments.