Determination of the Effective Components in Geranium sibiricum

[Objective]To develop an HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of protocatechuic acid and gallic acid in Geranium sibiricum.[ Method]The Agilent SBC18 column(4.6 mm×250.0 mm,5 μm)was used with mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.2% Phosphate acid(4∶96).The flow rate was 0.8 ml/min.The detection was set at 253nm and the column temperature at room temperature.[Result]The average recovery was 98.42 % with RSD 1.47 % for free protocatechuic acid and was 97.36 % with RSD 1.56 % for free gallic acid.The average recovery was 99.58% with RSD 1.79 %for hydrolysable protocatechuic acid and was 99.43% with RSD 1.44% for protocatechuic gallic acid.The average content of the samples was 0.001% for free protocatechuic acid and 0.041% for free gallic acid.The average content of the samples was 0.013% for protocatechuic protocatechuic acid and 1.387% for protocatechuic gallic acid.The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.204-1.020 μg(r= 0.999 3) for protocatechuic acid and 0.078-0.390 μg(r= 0.999 4) for gallic acid.[Conclusion]The method described in this paper is simple and accurate with good reproducibility and can be adopted for the quality control of Geranium sibiricum.