Isolation and determination of alizarin in cell cultures of Rubia tinctorum and emodin in Dermocybe sanguinea using solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of the non-glycosidic anthraquinones alizarin (1,2-dihydroxy-9,10-anthracenedione), emodin (1,3,8-trihydroxy-6-methyl-9,10-anthracenedione) and anthraquinone (9,10-anthracenedione). The anthraquinones were separated by isocratic elution on a 125 × 4.6 mm I.D. column containing ODS Hypersil 5 reversed-phase material using methanol-5% acetic acid (pH 3.0) (70:30) as the mobile phase. Free alizarin was determined in plant cell suspension cultures of Rubia tinctorum and free emodin in mushrooms (Dermocybe sanguinea). The effective extraction of anthraquinones from plant cells was achieved with 80% (v/v) ethanol after incubation for 10 h at 80°C. Prepurification and concentration of anthraquinones in the plant cell and mushroom extracts were effected by a solid-phase technique using C₈ cartridges.