Department of Analytical Chemistry, Medical University of Gdansk, Gen. J. Hallera 107, 80-416 Gdansk, Poland.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2013 Sep;83:215-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2013.05.020. Epub 2013 May 23.
To evaluate the quality consistency of commercial medicinal herbs, a simple and reliable HPLC method with UV-vis detector was developed, both for fingerprint analysis and quantitation of some pharmacologically active constituents (marker compounds). Melissa officinalis L. (lemon balm) was chosen for this study because it is widely used as an aromatic, culinary and medicine remedy. About fifty peaks were found in each chromatogram of a lemon balm extract, including twelve satisfactorily resolved characteristic peaks. A reference chromatographic fingerprint for the studied medicinal herb was calculated using Matlab 9.1 software as a result of analysing all the 19 lemon balm samples obtained from 12 Polish manufacturers. The similarity values and the results of principal component analysis revealed that all the samples were highly correlated with the reference fingerprint and could be accurately classified in relation to their quality consistency. Next, a quantitation of selected phenolic acids in the studied samples was performed. The results have shown that the levels of phenolic acids, i.e. gallic, chlorogenic, syringic, caffeic, ferulic and rosmarinic were as follows (mg/g of dry weight): 0.001-0.067, 0.010-0.333, 0.007-0.553, 0.047-0.705, 0.006-1.589 and 0.158-48.608, respectively. Statistical analysis indicated that rosmarinic acid occurs in M. officinalis at the highest level, whereas gallic acid in the lowest. A detailed inspection of these data has also revealed that reference chromatographic fingerprints combined with quantitation of pharmacologically active constituents of the plant could be used as an efficient strategy for monitoring of the lemon balm quality consistency.
为了评估商业药用植物的质量一致性，开发了一种简单可靠的 HPLC 方法，结合紫外可见检测器，用于指纹分析和定量一些具有药理活性的成分（标记化合物）。柠檬香蜂草（柠檬香脂）被选为研究对象，因为它广泛用作芳香剂、烹饪和药用植物。在柠檬香脂提取物的每个色谱图中发现了大约五十个峰，包括十二个特征峰得到了很好的分离。通过对从 12 家波兰制造商获得的 19 个柠檬香脂样本进行分析，使用 Matlab 9.1 软件计算出研究草药的参考色谱指纹图谱。相似度值和主成分分析的结果表明，所有样本与参考指纹图谱高度相关，可以根据其质量一致性进行准确分类。然后，对研究样本中选定的酚酸进行定量。结果表明，酚酸水平，即没食子酸、绿原酸、丁香酸、咖啡酸、阿魏酸和迷迭香酸的含量（干重mg/g）分别为 0.001-0.067、0.010-0.333、0.007-0.553、0.047-0.705、0.006-1.589 和 0.158-48.608。统计分析表明，迷迭香酸在柠檬香脂中含量最高，而没食子酸含量最低。对这些数据的详细检查还表明，参考色谱指纹图谱结合植物中具有药理活性成分的定量分析，可以作为监测柠檬香脂质量一致性的有效策略。
