Comparative study between capillary electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography in ‘guarana’ based phytopharmaceuticals

• Published in: Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 989 - 994
• Main Authors: Sombra, Lorena L., Gómez, María R., Olsina, Roberto, Martínez, Luis D., Silva, María F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 04.01.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adulterants; Analysis; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Capillary electrophoresis; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Electrophoresis, Capillary - methods; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General pharmacology; Gurana; Herbal medicines; HPLC; Medical sciences; Paullinia - chemistry; Pharmaceutical Preparations - analysis; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Phytopharmaceuticals; Plant Extracts - analysis; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Adulterants; Capillary electrophoresis; Herbal medicines; Phytopharmaceuticals; HPLC; Gurana; Plant origin; HPLC chromatography; Comparative study; Medicinal plant
• ISSN: 0731-7085; 1873-264X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2004.08.026

The last years have seen a significant increase in the use of herbal medicines and their preparations all over the world. Adulterations with synthetic drugs are common problems with phytopharmaceutical products and this can potentially cause adverse effects. In consequence, it is important to determine the presence of synthetic drugs in herbal medicines to ensure their efficacy and safety. In this study, guarana derivatives were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis (CE), and the results were compared with those obtained by the HPLC technique. In order to obtain adequate fingerprints, and search for adulterants, caffeine was used as the marker compound. This separation method was applied to analyze the seed powder and commercial tablets of Paulinia cupana Mart. The methodology performance was evaluated in terms of specificity, sensitivity and precision. The results are in agreement with those obtained by the HPLC method. Furthermore, the analysis time of the CE method is up to two times shorter than the respective parameter in HPLC and solvent consumption is more than 100-fold less.