Abstract:

A method using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography was developed for the determination of chlorogenic acid in yacon leaves, an active substance. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a Hypersil ODS column (4.6 mm × 300 mm, 5 μm) using a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile and 0.5% phosphoric acid (8:92, V/V) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detection wavelength and the column temperature were set at 325 nm and 25 ℃, respectively. There was a good linear relationship between peak area and chlorogenic acid concentration over the range of 10－100 μg/mL (r = 0.9999), and the average spike recovery for chlorogenic acid was 97.0% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.10%. The developed method presents the benefits of rapidity, simplicity, high accuracy and good separation.

Key words: yacon leaves, chlorogenic acid, reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)