Determination of Quercetin and Kaempferol in 21 Ferns from Tsinling Mountains by RP/HPLC

A reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic(RP/HPLC)method was developed for simultaneous determination of quercetin and kaempferol in 21 ferns samples collected from Tsinling Mountains.The separation of the targets was performed on a Shimadzu C18(250 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm) column by a constant gradient program using H2O(A)-methanol(B) as mobile phase at flow rate of 1.0 mL/min.The detection wavelength was set at 360 nm.The injection volume was 20 μL,and the column temperature was maintained at 28 ℃.The method showed good linear relationship,precision and repeatability.The recoveries were between 93% and 95%.The method was applied in the detection of quercetin and kaempferol in the above-ground parts and the underground parts of these 21 ferns.The result indicated that,in the above-ground parts,quercetin was existed in 19 species and kaempferol was existed in 15 species,in which the highest content of quercetin was 2.11 mg/g in Pyrrosia drakeana(Franch.) and that of kaempferol was 19.80 mg/g in Pteris vittata L.But in the underground parts of these 21 ferns,there was almost none of two kinds of elements in the rhizome of ferns except the existing of quercetin in Lepisorus marginatus and Lepisorus macrosphaerus(Baker) samples.The result also indicated that quercetin and kaempferol were widely existed in the above-ground parts of ferns samples.