Detection of Antihypertensive Agents Illegally Added in Traditional Chinese Medicine by HPLC

OBJECTIVE To hit the phenomenon that antihypertensive agents illegally adulterated in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) preparations, an HPLC method was established for detection of these fifteen kinds of antihypertensive agents. METHODS The chromatography was performed using an Agilent Extend-C₁₈ column(4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm) and gradient elution with the mobile phase consisting of 0.02 mol·L^-1 ammonium acetate solution and methanol-acetonitrile (2∶1) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min^-1. The detection wavelength was set at 230 nm. The column temperature was set at 30 ℃. RESULTS Under the condition, there was a good resolution among the fifteen kinds of antihypertensive agents and the detectability was 0.01 ng to 13 ng. Repeated 5 injections yielded relative standard deviation less than 0.1% regarding the retention time of each component. CONSLUSION This method is simple and sensitive with good reproduction quality for identifying antihypertensive agents.