HPLC with switching wavelength simultaneous determination of seven constituents in licorice and itsprocessed products

Objective:To establish an HPLC method for simultaneous determination of seven constituents(liquiritin apioside,liquiritin,isoliquiritin apioside,isoliquiritin,liquiritigenin,glycyrrhizic acid,isoliquiritigenin)in licorice and its processed products.Methods:The separation was performed on a Dikma Technologies-C18 BDS(200 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm)column with the gradient elution of acetonitrile-water containing 0.05% phosphoric acid at the flow rate of 0.8 mL·min-1.The column temperature was set at 30 ℃.Detection wavelength was 276 nm in 0-16 min,360 nm in 16-24 min,276 nm in 24-28 min,248 nm in 28-38 min,370 nm in 38-42 min.Results:Liquiritin apioside,liquiritin,isoliquiritin apioside,isoliquiritin,liquiritigenin,glycyrrhizic acid,isoliquiritigenin had good linearity in the ranges of 0.056-0.56,0.095-0.95,0.026-0.26,0.015-0.15,0.013-0.13,0.348-3.48,and 0.003-0.03 μg,respectively.The average recoveries of seven constituents were 96.1%-98.1%,with RSDs≤2.6%.The contents of seven constituents in licorice from sixteen sources and four processed products had differences.Conclusions:The developed method is rapid,accurate with high repeatability and stability,which is helpful to control the quality of licorice and its processed products.