Determination of chimaphilin in Chimaphila umbellata primary tincture by differential pulse polarography

In this paper a method for the determination of chimaphilin in plant extracts by differential pulse polarograpy (DPP) is presented. Chimaphilin is reduced at the dropping mercury electrode at pH 7.2 and a potential of -0.270 V vs Ag/AgCl. Strict linearity between the chimaphilin concentration and the peak height was observed in the 2.7 . 10(-7) - 2.7 . 10(-5) M concentration range. The detection limit is 40 ng/ml. The analysis of three equivalent extracts led to concentrations of 175.3, 199.4 and 267.9 mu g chimaphilin per ml of primary tincture.