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For the production of a commercially useful dye extract from madder, the glycoside ruberythric acid has to be hydrolysed to the aglycone alizarin which is the main dye component. An intrinsic problem is the simultaneous hydrolysis of the glycoside lucidin primeveroside to the unwanted mutagenic aglycone lucidin. Madder root was treated with strong acid, strong base or enzymes to convert ruberythric acid into alizarin and the anthraquinone compositions of the suspensions were analysed by HPLC. A cheap and easy method to hydrolyse ruberythric acid in madder root to alizarin without the formation of lucidin turned out to be the stirring of dried madder roots in water at room temperature for 90 min: this gave a suspension containing pseudopurpurin, munjistin, alizarin and nordamnacanthal. Native enzymes are responsible for the hydrolysis, after which lucidin is converted to nordamnacanthal by an endogenous oxidase.

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Direct and indirect HPLC-UV methods for the quantitative determination of anthraquinones in dried madder root have been developed, validated and compared. In the direct method, madder root was extracted twice with refluxing ethanol-water. This method allowed the determination of the two major native anthraquinone glycosides lucidin primeveroside and ruberythric acid. In the indirect extraction method, the anthraquinone glycosides were first converted into aglycones by endogenous enzymes and the aglycones were subsequently extracted with tetrahydrofuran-water and then analysed. In this case the anthraquinones alizarin, purpurin and nordamnacanthal may be determined. The content of nordamnacanthal is proportional to the amount of lucidin primeveroside originally present. The indirect extraction method is easier to apply. Different madder cultivars were screened for their anthraquinone content.