Rapid quantification of aloin A and B in aloe plants and aloe‐containing beverages, and pharmaceutical preparations by microchip capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection

Abstract

A microchip capillary electrophoresis coupled with laser induced fluorescence detection method for the fast determination of aloin was developed and comprehensively applied for the quantification of aloin A and B present in seven aloe plant species, 42 aloin-containing crude drugs, ten aloe pharmaceutical preparations, and four aloe gel-containing functional foods. The excitation and emission wavelengths for detection of both aloins were set at 473 and 520 nm, respectively. Sample analysis on a 35 mm length of glass microchip channel was completed within 40 s. An interference study indicated that the other main anthraquinones present in the samples did not interrupt with the target aloins detection, demonstrating the good selectivity of this method. It is demonstrated that this method is fast, facile, and specific for determination of aloin A and B from matrix samples which can be applied to the quality control of a wide varieties of aloe species and aloe-derived products.

Recent Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis in the Determination of Active Compounds in Medicinal Plants and Pharmaceutical Formulations

“…An increasingly common approach to increase the resolution between racemic natural products is the addition of cyclodextrins to a running buffer, such as chiral selectors. In addition, microchips are also becoming a popular strategy [ 22 ]. In the determination of arecoline by Xiang et al, the additive IL, 1–butyl–3–methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMImBF 4 ) was responsible not only for improvement of separation selectivity but also in the detection sensitivity of the analyte.…”

“…In a reported paper by Xiao at al., a developed and carefully applied MCE–LIF method for the fast quantification of aloin A and B present in seven aloe plant species and pharmaceutical formulations was presented. In this instance, the LOQ is expressed in ng mL −1 [ 22 ]. Table 1 shows that in many cases, UV detectors are sufficient for the analysis of active constituents in pharmaceutical formulation or herbal raw material.…”

Advances and strategies for capillary electrophoresis in the characterization of traditional Chinese medicine: A review of the past decade (2011–2021)

“…Ultrasonication and UAE are the most widely used extraction techniques in most publications to extract active components from various TCMs. For example, TCMs such as Chinese coptis (Yaroshenko et al, 2016), Macleaya cordata seeds, the herb Chelidonium majus (Sun et al, 2015), Flos Daturae (Ye et al, 2013a), Pollen Typhae (Han et al, 2012), Cuscuta chinensis Lam (Liu et al, 2016), Coreopsis tinctoria (Deng et al, 2017), Yufeng Ningxin-Radix Puerariae, the dry root of Pueraria lobata, Yufeng Ningxin tablet, Gegen soup granules, Gegen Zhiju soft capsules (Guo et al, 2019), aloe plants and aloe-containing beverages (Xiao et al, 2018), Valeriana (Li et al, 2014), and Forsythiae Fructus fruits (Gan et al, 2012) have all reported ultrasound methods for extraction. Bao et al compared two extraction methods with ultrasonication following basification to extract aconitum alkaloids from the dried root of Radix Aconiti (Bao et al, 2011).…”

“…MCE combined with LIF detection showed improved detection limits compared to UV detection. Xiao et al showed a rapid estimation of two anthraquinones (aloin A and B) in a variety of aloe plants in 40 s with cross-channel microchip CE paired with LIF detection (Xiao et al, 2018).…”

“…CNT is a promising electrochemical sensing material. In recent decades, miniaturized chemical analysis systems have garnered tremendous interest in TCM analysis due to their unique qualities, including low reagent and sample demand, short analysis time, low power consumption, and portability for in situ applications (Zhao and Chen, 2013;Zhao and Chen, 2014;Tang et al, 2015;Xiao et al, 2018). Shih et al analyzed guanosine, methionine, glycine, 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde, and homogentisic acid within 5 min in a well-known TCM (Pinellia ternate) by MCE with AD using 20 mM borate buffer as BGE (Shih et al, 2018).…”