Chemical Studies on Crude Drug Processing. IV. Aconiti Tuber (3). : Quantitative Determination of Aconitine Alkaloids in Aconiti Tuber by Means of High Performance Liquid Chromatography

As a continuing study on the chemical characterization of the processing of "fuzi", a quantitative method by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for aconitine alkaloids : aconitine (1), hypaconitine (2), mesaconitine (3), lipoaconitine (4), lipohypaconitine (5), lipomesaconitine (6), lipodeoxyaconitine (7), benzoylaconine (1a), benzoylhypaconine (2a), and benzoylmesaconine (3a), has been developed. By the use of this HPLC method, aconitine alkaloid contents in 15 kinds of "fuzi"(processed and unprocessed, originated in Japan and China) were examined. It was found that 13 out of 15 kinds of "fuzi"contained lipo-alkaloids (4, 5, 6) as major alkaloids and the contents of fatally toxic alkaloids such as 1, 2, and 3 decreased in processed "fuzi"(e.g."pao-fuzi") whereas the contents of lipo-alkaloids increased.