Quality evaluation and species differentiation of Rhizoma coptidis by using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

• Published in: Analytica chimica acta 2012-10, Vol.747, p.76-83
• Main Authors: Fan, Gang, Zhang, Meng Ying, Zhou, Xiang Dong, Lai, Xian Rong, Yue, Qing Hong, Tang, Ce, Luo, Wei Zao, Zhang, Yi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Berberine - analogs & derivatives; Berberine - analysis; Berberine Alkaloids - analysis; Berberine Alkaloids - chemistry; Chemistry; Chromatographic methods and physical methods associated with chromatography; Coptis; Coptis - chemistry; Coptis - classification; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - chemistry; Exact sciences and technology; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - methods; Multivariate Analysis; Other chromatographic methods; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Principal Component Analysis; Protoberberine alkaloids; Proton nuclear magnetic resonance; Quantitative analysis; Rhizoma coptidis; Rhizome - chemistry; Rhizome - classification; Species differentiation; Species Specificity; Spectrometric and optical methods
• ISSN: 0003-2670; 1873-4324
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2012.08.038

[Display omitted] ► We report a qNMR method for the determination of six alkaloids in Rhizoma coptidis. ► The results of the qNMR method are reliable by comparison with a HPLC method. ► The proposed method has good selectivity, precision, repeatability and accuracy. ► This method coupled with chemometrics can distinguish three Rhizoma coptidis species. Rhizoma coptidis, a broadly used traditional Chinese medicine, derives from the dried rhizomes of Coptis chinensis Franch, Coptis deltoidea C.Y. Cheng et Hsiao and Coptis teeta Wall. Quantitative determination of protoberberine alkaloids in R. coptidis is critical for controlling its quality. In this study, a rapid, simple and accurate quantitative 1H NMR (qNMR) method was developed for simultaneous determination of berberine, jatrorrhizine, epiberberine, coptisine, palmatine and columbamine in R. coptidis from the three species. Method validation was performed in terms of selectivity, precision, repeatability, stability, accuracy, robustness and linearity. The average recoveries obtained were in the range of 96.9–102.4% for all the six alkaloids. In addition, the qNMR data were analyzed with analysis of variance (ANOVA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), and the results showed that the contents of the active alkaloids have significant difference among the three species. Compared with the conventional HPLC approach, the proposed qNMR method was demonstrated to be a powerful tool for quantifying the six alkaloids due to its unique advantages of high robustness, rapid analysis time and no need of standard compounds for calibration curves preparation. These findings indicate that this method has potential as a reliable method for quality evaluation of herb medicines, especially for protoberberine alkaloid-containing ones.