A reliable way to increase the level of standardization of phytochemical preparations consists in establishing analytical procedures based on officially certified standards represented by compounds of the corresponding chemical nature. In application to flavonoid-eontaining phytoprepamtions, the role of these reference compounds is frequently performed by readily available standard samples of rutin [1] or quereetin [2] belonghag to the group of flavonols. Recently, a new standard sample-dihydroquercetin [3], representing the group of hydroxyflavonols, was created in connection with the development of a new antioxidant and capillary-protector phytopreparation diquertin, in which dihydroquercetin is the active substance [4,5].The standard compounds must satisfy high requirements with respect to the degree of purity. Standard substances of the flavonoid nature have to meet another important requiremerit, reflecting the amount and state of water in the compound. This circumstance is explained by the fact that molecules of the flavonoid compounds contain polar functional groups (carbonyl, hydroxyl) and are capable of interacting with other polar molecules and creating various structural formations. Study of the standard turin and quercetin samples showed that they may contain, depending on the hydrotherreal parameters of the environment, water molecules of the adsorption, "pseudo-crystal-hydrate" and crystal-hydrate nature [6,7].The purpose of this work was to study the amount and character of bound water in the standard dihydroquercetin sample, in the context of characterization of the new phytopreparation diquertin.
MATERIALS AND METHODSExperiments were performed on samples ofdihydroquercetin standard and diquertin synthesized at the Irkutsk state University from crushed wood of larch tree [8]. The content of dihydroquercetin in the diquertin sample was 95.4%, and dihydrokaempferol and naringenin accounted for 4.5%. A standard dihydroquercetin sample was obtained by methods of preparative I-IPLC and represented a high-purity compound cor~mlnirtg foreign impurities [9].Thermoanalytical investigations included differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric (TG) measurements. To this end, samples weighing 4-5 mg were placed into standard aluminum boats and closed. The desired temperature interval was scanned at a heating rate of 10 K / rain. The total water content was determined by potentiometric titration using the Fischer reagent and by gravimettic determination of the weight loss upon drying to constant weight in a dry box at 105 +__ 2.5~ The sorption of water vapors was studied by exposure of dihydroquercetin and diquertin samples in desiccators above saturated solutions of standard salts, followed by measuring the isotherms of sorption in the static regime and the sorption dynamics in time.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
94Study of the initial samples showed that the water content in diquertin was several times that in dihydroquercetin (Table 1), albeit still not exceeding the level (not above 7%) stip...