Simultaneous determination of gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, catechin, epicatechin, quercetin and kaempferol in Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissimablume) kernel by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection

Summary Chestnut exhibits anti-inflammatory, styptic, anti-diarrhea, and analgestic effects as a traditional Chinese medicine. There is increasing evidence that shows that the consumption of chestnuts has become more important in human nutrition due to the health benefits provided by the antioxidants. The phenolic compounds are responsible for major bioactivities, such as anti-tumor and anti-oxidation. A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with diode array detection (DAD) was established for the simultaneous determination of six phenolic compounds (gallic acid, GA; protocatechuic acid, PR; catechin, CA; epicatechin, EP; quercetin, QU; kaempferol, KA) in Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima blume) kernel. The sample followed by separation on Eclipse XDB-C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, id., 5 μm) with gradient elution of methanol-1.0% acetate acid solution as a mobile phase, at a temperature of 30°C, under the ratio of 1.2 mL min−1, with 5 μL injection volume, and multi-wavelength synthesis was used with DAD. The correlation coefficients were larger than 0.999, the recoveries were 97.58% for GA, 100.41% for PA, 96.23% for CA, 101.38% for QU, 99.15% for EP, and 98.60% for KA, relative standard deviation (RSD) were 1.04% for GA, 1.21% for PA, 1.09% for CA, 1.19% for QU, 1.06% for EP, and 1.20% for KA. This method was applied for the determination of phenolics in chestnut kernel and was found to be fast, sensitive, and suitable.