Qualitative Confirmation of Active Ingredient of Arbutin in Pear Leaves and Quantitative Determination by HPLC

OBJECTIVE To confirm arbutin as an ingredient in pear leaves, and develop a method for the determination of arbutin content in pear leaves by HPLC. METHODS The full powdered pear leaves were extracted with methanol, then cleanup was performed on ENVITM-18 SPE columns after methanol boiled off. Qualitative confirmation using the UV spectrum and mass spectra was acquired on-line. HPLC was performed on Inertsil ODS-3 column with DAD detection wavelength of 282 nm using methanol-water(1∶9) as mobile phase. RESULTS The UV spectrum and mass spectra of the target chromatographic peak were the same as arbutin standard. The HPLC method showed good linear relationship, the recoveries of arbutin were all more than 93% and RSD was less than 2.1%. CONCLUSION Arbutin is an active ingredient in pear leaves, and HPLC as the content analysis method is simple, rapid and accurate.