Screening of radical scavengers in Scutellaria baicalensis using HPLC with diode array and chemiluminescence detection.

Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is a well-known medical plant widely used as a famous traditional Chinese medicine. It has been reported that S. baicalensis can protect against oxidative stress and possess anti-inflammatory effect. In the present paper, an HPLC-diode array-chemiluminescence detection method for on-line detection was successfully developed to screen antioxidants in complex S. baicalensis extracts. Using the proposed approach, eight compounds in the S. baicalensis extracts were found to possess a potential antioxidant activity. Furthermore, the effects of purified compounds on protecting RAW 264.7 cells from hydrogen peroxide injury were also investigated in vitro to confirm the established method, which were consistent with the results of HPLC-diode array-chemiluminescence detection method. These results demonstrated that this method was a useful technique for rapidly screening and identifying bioactive components from complex herbal medicines.