OBJECTIVE

To establish the method for determination of ephedrine hydrochloride, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and methylephedrine hydrochloride in maxingshigan decoction by capillary electrophoresis.

METHODS

The separation was performed on a fused silica capillary of 60 cm x 55 microcrpm ID (52 cm of effective length). 60 mmol/L NaB4O7 + 10% (V/V) CH3OH (pH 9.0) was selected as the running buffer. The separation voltage was 12 kV. The samples was injected by gravity (10 s, 15 cm). The detection wavelength was 210 nm and berberine hydrochloride was the internal standard.

RESULTS

The linear range of determination for ephedrine hydrochloride, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and methylephedrine hydrochloride were 20.0-160.0 microg/mL (r = 0.9999), 7.5-60.0 microg/mL (r = 0.9991) and 2.0-10.0 microg/mL (r = 0.9993). The average recoveries were 98.0%, 97.0% and 97.8%, the precisions of the method were 2.31%, 2.21% and 2.00% (n=6), respectively.

CONCLUSION

The method is convenient, rapid and accurate for the quality control of maxingshigan decoction.