Quantification of xanthones in a Mongolian health tea using high-performance liquid chromatography

Gentianella acuta, known as "guixincao", has been used as a health tea with the properties of clearing heat and toxic materials, removing pathogenic heat from blood, and increasing secretion of urine. In this study, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with ultraviolet (UV) detection was used for quantification of two major bioactive xanthones in the "guixincao" tea samples which were collected during our ethnopharmacological survey. As a result of this study, a simple, specific, precise, accurate, rapid and reproducible HPLC-UV method has been developed to successfully quantify desmethylbellidifolin and bellidifolin in "guixincao" tea. The results also indicate that the samples of "guixincao" tea were rich in bioactive xanthones, which provided a scientific basis for its uses in inner Mongolian.