Hollow-fiber double-solvent synergistic microextraction with high-performance liquid chromatography for the determination of antitumor alkaloids in Coptis chinensis

A new hollow-fiber double-solvent synergistic microextraction method was proposed for the extraction and concentration of trace active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine. The main variables affecting the method were investigated and optimized. Under the optimized conditions, linearities were 0.01-10 mu g/mL, detection limits were lower than 0.8 ng/mL, and interday, and intraday relative standard deviations were <9.20%. Furthermore, average recoveries ranged from 102.8 to 104.1%, and enrichment factors were 6-70 for the four alkaloids tested. The antitumor alkaloid group in Coptis chinensis was screened and identified by hollow-fiber cell fishing with high-performance liquid chromatography. The four alkaloids were then enriched and quantified by hollow-fiber double-solvent synergistic microextraction with high-performance liquid chromatography. The mechanism of the proposed microextraction method was described, and results demonstrated that the approach was a simple and reliable sample-preparation procedure. This method, as well as hollow-fiber cell fishing combined with high-performance liquid chromatography can be adopted to study the different characteristic effects of the multiple components and multiple targets of traditional Chinese medicine. The approach can also be used to conduct tailored quality control of the active compounds associated with therapeutic efficacy.