Determination of camphor and borneol in Flos Chrysanthemi Indici by UAE and GC-FID.

In the work, ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) followed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) is developed for the quantitative analysis of the bioactive components of camphor and borneol in a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) of Flos Chrysanthemi Indici. The extraction parameters are investigated. The optimum extraction conditions found are: solvent, methanol; solvent to sample ratio, 12:1 (v/w); extraction time, 15 min. Camphor and borneol are determined using this extraction method in Flos Chrysanthemi Indici samples from 5 different growing areas. The relative standard deviation values for camphor and borneol are 8.4% and 5.6%, respectively. The recoveries for camphor and borneol are 89% and 95%, respectively, and the method detection limits are lower than 0.23 microg/mL. To demonstrate the method feasibility, steam distillation is also used to analyze camphor and borneol in Flos Chrysanthemi Indici samples from these different growing areas. The statistical comparison by t-test (95% confidence level) showed no significant difference between these results. It has been shown that the proposed UAE-GC-FID is a simple, rapid, and reliable method for quantitative analysis of camphor and borneol in TCM, and a potential tool for quality assessment of Flos Chrysanthemi Indici.