Simultaneous Determination of Gallic Acid, Protocatechuic Acid and Catechin in Pine Needles of Cedrus Deodara by HPLC

OBJECTIVE To develop an HPLC method for simultaneous determination of gallic acid, protocatechuic acid and catechin components in pine needles of Cedrus deodara. METHODS Agilent TC-C₁₈ column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) was adopted. The mobile phase was methanol (A)-0.2% phosphoric acid (B) with gradient elution (0-8 min, 10%A; 8-45 min, 10%→30%A) at the flow rate of 1.0 mL·min^-1. The column temperature was 25 ℃ and the detection wavelength was 280 nm. RESULTS Calibration curves were found to be linear in the ranges of 0.4-4.0 μg·mL^-1 for gallic acid, 4-40 μg·mL^-1 for protocatechuic acid and 2-20 μg·mL^-1 for catechin. The correlation coefficients were 0.999 8, 0.999 9, 0.999 9. The average recoveries(n=9) of gallic acid, protocatechuic acid and catechin were 104.7%, 99.5% and 105.8%. CONCLUSION The method is simple, rapid and efficient, which is suitable for the determination of gallic acid, protocatechuic acid and catechin components in pine needles of Cedrus deodara.