[High-performance liquid chromatography for determination of psoralene, bergapten and apigenin in Ficus hirta Vahl].

OBJECTIVE To establish a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based method for determining the contents of psoralene, bergapten and apigenin in Ficus hirta Vahl. METHODS A Hypersil C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) was used with the mobile phase of methanol-water (60:40), flow rate of 1.0 ml/min, detection wavelength of 268.7 nm and column temperature of 30 degrees celsius. RESULTS The calibration curve was linear within the range of 10.0-30.0 µg/ml for psoralene (r=0.9998), 15.0-45.0 µg/ml for bergapten (r=0.9998) and 5.0-15.0 µg/ml for apigenin (r=0.9992). The average recovery of psoralene was 99.7% (RSD=1.99%), that of bergapten was 99.9% (RSD=1.71%) and that of apigenin was 100.3% (RSD=1.78%). CONCLUSION The method is simple, economic and accurate with good reproducibility for the contents of psoralene, bergapten and apigenin.