Determination of Triterpene Saponins in Melia plants by Thin Layer Chromatography-spectrophotometry

The thin layer chromatography-spectrophotometry analysis was used to investigate the total content of triterpene saponins in Melia plants.The results showed that the feasible processing with following procedure: Ethyl acetate: formic acid:water=25:1:1 as developer,0.2 ml of 5% vanillin-glacial acetic solution,0.8 ml perchloric acid solution,heating 15 mitutes at 60 ℃.The linearity was fine in 10～200 μg/ml.The correlative coefficient was 0.998 5.The content of total triterpene saponins in the old leaf of toona sinensis was(17.50±1.26)mg/g.The content of total triterpene saponins in the seed of toona sinensis was(32.40±0.95)mg/g.The content of total triterpene saponins in the bark of toona sinensis was(32.90±2.03)mg/g.The content of total triterpene saponins in the bark of Melia toosendan Sieb.et zucc.was(36.30±0.59)mg/g.The content of total triterpene saponins in the toosandan fructus was(26.00±1.14)mg/g.The average recovery was 99.94% and RSD was 1.08% for total triterpene saponins.The method was appropriate for quality control of Melia plants.