HPLC determination of chlorogenic acid and gallic acid in Quanshen pieces with two different colors

Objective: The commercial Quanshen pieces have two different colors,amaranth and brownish red. The aim of this study was to determine the contents of chlorogenic acid and gallic acid in these two kinds of Quanshen pieces( which were from the same batch) and to check whether there was difference in the contents of chlorogenic acid and gallic acid between the Quanshen pieces with two different colors. Methods: HPLC method was applied.The column was Diamonsil C18column( 250 mm × 4. 6 mm,5 μm),the mobile phase was methanol- 0. 4% acetic acid solution( 25∶ 75),the flow rate was 0. 8 mL·min- 1,the column temperature was 25.0 ℃ and the detection wavelength was 290 nm. Results: For the 7 batches of Quanshen pieces from Hubei,Shandong and Hebei,the contents of chlorogenic acid in amaranth colored Quanshen pieces were: Hubei 1. 59%,Shandong 4. 49%,5. 47%,Hebei 1. 77%,2. 54%,2. 56%,2. 49%,and the corresponding contents of gallic acid were: Hubei 0. 83%,Shandong0. 29%,1. 09%,Hebei 0. 39%,0. 30%,0. 55%,0. 93%. The contents of chlorogenic acid in brownish red colored Quanshen pieces were: Hubei 0. 35%,Shandong 0. 26%,1. 91%,Hebei 0. 46%,0. 56%,1. 43%,1. 18%,and the corresponding gallic acid contents were: Hubei 0. 19%,Shandong 0. 16%,0. 72%,Hebei 0. 21%,0. 17%,0. 43%,0. 87%. Conclusion: The contents of both chlorogenic acid and gallic acid in the amaranth colored Quanshen pieces were higher than those in the brownish red colored pieces.