Liquid chromatographic (LC) determination of four bioactive compounds in the Portulaca oleracea L

The present article described a simple high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of hesperidin, caffeic acid, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid in Portulaca oleracea L., using a Phenomsil C-18 analytical column (5 mu m, 250 x 4.6 mm, Feinami Technologies, Beijing, China) and mobile phase consisting of methanol-acetonitrile-tetrahydrofuran-0.1% glacial acetic acid (8:2:18:72, v/v/v/v). The calibration curves of the four components were linear (r(2) > 0.9995) over the concentration range of 0.75 to 20.0 mu g/ml. The mean recoveries were 96.9 to 98.5%. The results indicate that the HPLC method developed can easily be applied to the determination of four bioactive compounds in the P. oleracea L.