Identification and determination of active components in Gastrodia elata Bl. by capillary electrophoresis

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), using a 25 mM berate buffer (pH 10.0) with 10% (v/v) acetonitrile, was established for the identification and de termination of five constituents - gastrodin (GA), 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (HA), vanillyl alcohol (VA), 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (HD) and vanillin (VL) - in the extracts of Gastrodia elata BI. roots. Regression equations reveale d linear relationships (correlation coefficients: 0.9992-0.9999) between th e peak area of each constituent (GA, HA, VA, HD and VL) and its concentrati on. The relative standard deviations of the migration times of five constit uents ranged between 0.99 and 1.43%. The recoveries of five constituents ra nged between 94.3 and 109.2%. The GA, VA and HA contents measured 6.18 mg/g (1.11% RSD), 0.71 mg/g (0.86% RSD) and 0.25 mg/g (8.56% RSD), respectively , in the sample of Gastrodia elata BI. collected in Sichuan province. Also, the dissociation constant of GA was determined by a CE method. (C) 1999 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.