Separation by capillary zone electrophoresis of the active anthraquinone components of the Chinese herbPolygonum multiflorum Thunb

ACE method has been developed for separation and determination on the active anthraquinone components physcion, chrysophanol, aloe-emodin, emodin, and rhein of the Chinese herbPolygonum multiflorum Thunb. The five anthraquinone compounds were separated to baseline with the optimum running buffer (24mm disodium hydrogen phosphate +30% (v/v) acetonitrile) and the amounts of the compounds in prepared and crude herb were quantitatively analyzed within 20 min. The effects of buffer pH and organic modifier (acetonitrile) concentration on the separation of the solutes were also investigated.