Determination of Phenolic Acids in Botanical Pharmaceutical Products by Capillary Electrophoresis with Chemiluminescence Detection

A rapid and simple method was developed to determine the phenolic acids ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid and salicylic acid in botanical drugs by capillary electrophoresis with chemiluminescence detection. The sensitive chemiluminescence detection was carried out in a laboratory-constructed temperature-controlled interface by the use of acidic potassium permanganate as a chemiluminescence reagent. To obtain the optimized conditions, the experimental conditions for the capillary electrophoresis separation and chemiluminescence detection were systematically examined. Under the optimized conditions, the analytes were well separated within 7 min. The limits of detection for ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid and salicylic acid were 35, 58 and 37 mu g/mL and the limits of quantification were 117, 193 and 123 mu g/mL, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the quantitative determination of phenolic acids inLonicera japonicaflos and Rhizoma Chuanxiong.