Separation of the Ephedra Alkaloids by RPLC
SHUENN-JYI SHEU1 AND MING-HSING HUANG2*
1.Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan 107
2. Department of Pharmacy, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, 60, Eer-Jen Rd., Sec. 1, Jen-Teh, Tainan, Taiwan 717
(Received: July 20, 2000; Accepted: November 7, 2000)
ABSTRACT
High-performance liquid chromatography with ODS columns has been the most popular technique in analyzing the Chinese herbal drugs. (-)-Ephedrine and (+)-pseudo-ephedrine are the major index components in Ephedrae Herba. In order to separate these two alkaloids, three ODS columns were evaluated. The relationships between SDS concentrations, brands, organic solvent ratios and pH values and retention times of the ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were also studied.
Key words: high-performance liquid chromatography, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine