[Simultaneous determination of three active constituents in cortex moutan by RP-HPLC].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol in Cortex Moutan. METHOD: The analysis was carried out on a column of YMC-C18 (4. 6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm), and gradient elution was used for the baseline separation of these three constituents with the different detection wavelength. RESULT: The linear ranges for gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol were 0.0130-0.267, 0.0880-1.76 and 0.164-3.28 microg, respectively. Their average recoveries were 104.3%, 101.7% and 99.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The method was successfully applied to the determination of gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol in Cortex Moutan from the different drugstores. It was shown in this study that the proposed method could be used to evaluate the quality of the medicinal plants or herbal preparations containing gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol.