Abstract:

An efficient high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) method was developed for the determination
of aloe-emodin, kaempferol, chlorogenic and quercetin in nightlily flowers (Hemerocallis citrina). Sample injection was
carried out by hydrodynamic injection for 5 s at 30 kV. The running buffer was 10 mmol/L Na2B4O7-H3BO3 (pH 9.15), and the
detection wavelength was set at 224 nm. Four target compounds were separated in 6 min. Under these optimal conditions, the linear
ranges for the above four compounds were 0.02–0.21, 0.01–0.90, 0.01–0.99, and 0.01–0.90 mg/mL with correlation coefficients
between 0.997 6 and 0.999 6, and the limits of detection were 2.45 × 10-5, 1.41 × 10-5, 1.78 × 10-5 and 8.63 × 10-6 mg/mL
(RSN = 3), respectively. The average recoveries were 97.5% to 101.2%, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) less than
4.76%. This method is fast, accurate and suitable for the detection of these active compounds in H. citrine flowers.

Key words: high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE), Hemerocallis citrina, quercetin