IDENTIFICATION BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY DIODE-ARRAY DETECTION MASS-SPECTROMETRY AND QUANTIFICATION BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY UV ABSORBENCY DETECTION OF ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS OF HYPERICUM-PERFORATUM

Hypericum perforatum is a medicinal plant which has been known in trad itional medicine as an anti-inflammatory and healing agent. Nowadays, the alcoholic extract of its aerial parts finds wide application for i ts antidepressant activity. A high-performance liquid chromatography ( HPLC) method for the identification of its constituents using a wide p ore RP-18 column and a water-methanol-acetonitrile-phosphoric acid mob ile phase system was developed. The identification of its flavonoid, n aphthodianthrone and phloroglucinol constituents was performed using c ombined HPLC-diode array detection (DAD) analysis, HPLC-thermospray an d HPLC-electrospray mass spectrometry. Chlorogenic acid, quercetin, qu ercitrin, isoquercitrin, rutin, hyperoside, I3,II8-biapigenin, pseudoh ypericin, hypericin, hyperforin and adhyperforin were separated by an aqueous phosphoric acid-acetonitrile-methanol gradient within 50 min. The quantification of the above constituents was performed using rutin as an external standard. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science BN. All rights res erved.