Estimation of the lipophilic character of flavonoids from the retention behavior in reversed phase liquid chromatography on different stationary phases: A comparative study

The retention behavior of some flavonoids in reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was investigated using different chemistries of the modified silicagel based stationary phases. Highly end-capped octadecyl silicagel (ODS), polar embedded linker octadecyl silicagel (SB-18 Aqua), phenyl silicagel and pentafluorophenyl modified silicagel (PFP) were used as stationary phases. The mobile phase consisted in acetonitrile/acidified water mixtures, at different fractions of volume. The lipophilicity was estimated through different chromatographic descriptors, as it follows: log k(w), m log k, S, phi(0) and PC1/log k. The chromatographic behavior observed on the mentioned stationary phases was evaluated by means of various graphical profiles and correlation matrices. Additionally, new information about the characteristics of the stationary phases and their (dis)-similarities were provided through lipophilicity charts and by scatter-plots of loadings obtained by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to retention data. Furthermore, the experimental lipophilicity indices estimated from retention data were correlated with the computed descriptors, at a high level of statistical significance. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.