QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF PHENOLIC ACIDS IN LONICERA JAPONICA THUNB. USING HIGH PERFORMANCE THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY.

A new, simple, precise, and rapid high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitative determination of three phenolic acids, namely, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid and chlorogenic acid from flower buds of Lonicera japonica. The separation of these compounds was carried out on silica gel 60F254 eluted with ethyl acetate:chloroform:methanol:formic acid:water (6:2.5:1.5:0.6:0.1 v/v/v/v) and a detection wavelength at 330 nm. The developed method gave a good linear regression relationship between peak area and an observed concentration range of 200-1200 ng spot-1 for the three aforementioned marker compounds. Spike recoveries were within 97.81-101.59% and the RSD values of precision were in the range of 0.65-3.21%. The method presented good results for the following parameters: selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, robustness, as well as limit of detection and limit of quantification. Therefore, this method could provide a simple analytical tool for the quality control of Lonicera japonica raw material and its products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]