Simultaneous determination of atropine and scopolamine in different parts of Hyoscyamus arachnoideus Pojark plants by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)

A reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with UV-PDA detector was used for the analysis of main tropane alkaloids, scopolamine and atropine, in the roots, aerial parts and seeds of Hyoscyamus arachnoideus Pojark plants collected from five different parts of Iran. Results showed that scopolamine was only the main alkaloid of two H. arachnoideus populations seeds, while atropine was the major alkaloid of almost all parts, especially roots. The highest and lowest content of tropane alkaloids was observed in populations from Zangane village and Ashtian Mountain, respectively. The alkaloid content of seeds was in general more than other parts tested. The linearity of the method was in the range of 4 to 400 µg/ml for atropine and 0.8 to 80 µg/ml for scopolamine. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) values were 5.15 and 17.4 µg/ml for atropine and 1.92 and 6.4 µg/ml for scopolamine.