[Quality standard of Sappan Lignum].

To establish the quality standard of Sappan Lignum, TLC and HPLC method were employed. The components of Sappan Lignum could be separated well on GF254 thin layer plate using a mixture of chloroform-acetone-formic acid (8:4:1) as the mobile phase, and the 18 samples collected basically showed the same spots. The ethanol-soluble extractives of 18 samples varied in the range of 6.4% to 11.3%. The methodological investigation of assay showed, the peak areas and the injection amount of Brazilin and (+/-) protosappanin B were in good linear correlation when their amounts were in the ranges of 0.362-5.425 microg and 0.313-4.695 microg, with the regression equations of Y = 798,999.57X - 219,666.54 (r = 0.9997) and Y = 930,296.63X - 123,330.67 (r = 0.9995) and the average recoveries were 98.6% and 100.5%, respectively. The contents differed significantly among the samples. The TLC identification method established was suitable to identify Sappan Lignum due to its strong specificity. The HPLC assay method established could be applied to the quality control of Sappan Lignum due to its convenience, good reproducibility and high accuracy.