Abstract:  A rapid capillary electrophoresis(CE)method has been developed for the determination of eleven bioactive flavonoids in bee propolis:acacetin,apigenin,cinnamic acid,galangin,ferulic acid,hesperidin,luteolin,naringenin,quercetin,resveratrol,and rutin.Optimal conditions were optimized for several parameters,such as pH and concentration of buffer solution,separation voltage,electrokinetic injection time,and UV detection wavelength.Using a H3BO3-Na2B4O7 buffer(40mmol/L,pH8.85),the analytes were separated within 19min and detected at 206nm.The relative standard deviations of migration times in eight injections were between 0.1% and 0.3%,and those of the peak areas ranged from 3.0% to 9.7%.Excellent linearity was observed over two orders of magnitude,with quantitation limits(S/N=10)ranging from 0.1μg/ml to 0.4μg/ml for all the eleven analytes.Recoveries ranged from 84% to 110%.The new method is simple,reproducible and sensitive.Analysis results are accurate in health food applications.

Key words: capillary electrophoresis, analysis, flavonoids, propolis