A simple isocratic HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of bioactive components of Scutellariae Radix extract

Scutellariae Radix, the dried root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, has been widely used in Asian countries for the treatment of dermatitis, diarrhoea, inflammatory disease and hepatic disease. A simple, sensitive and precise reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method with isocratic elution was developed to simultaneously determine four bioactive compounds in Scutellariae Radix: baicalein, baicalin, wogonin and wogonoside. Chromatographic analysis was performed on a YMC Pack Pro C-8 column (150 x 4.6mm(2), 3 mu m), with a mobile phase of 0.1% formic acid : acetonitrile (70 : 30, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0mLmin(-1), and UV detection at 280 nm. Linear behaviour was observed over the investigated concentration range (0.25-10 mu gmL(-1)) for all analytes, with a correlation coefficient of >0.997. The intra-and inter-day precisions were <8.07%, and accuracies were 92.3-102.9%. This method was successfully applied for the analysis of marker compounds for the quality control of Scutellariae Radix extract.