Determination of Sennosides in Cassia angustifolia by HPLC–DAD

A methodology based on HPLC for the determination and quantification of sennosides in the extracts of Cassia angustifolia Vahl., Fabaceae, was developed. Firstly, a validated quantitative analysis of sennosides A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ) in herbal products was performed using HPLC-DAD. The chromatographic analysis for both anthraquinones showed satisfactory regression ( r 2 > 0.99) within the test ranges, and the recovery was in the range of 96.6 to 102.4%. The limits of detection and quantification were found to be 0.002–0.004 (μg ml −1 ) and 0.008–0.015 (μg ml −1 ), respectively, demonstrating to be more sensitive than previous analytical methods described for this species. In addition, the HPLC fingerprints of all C. angustifolia samples and reference indicated the qualitative chemical composition is similar. However, hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis showed quantitative differences in the sennosides from herbal samples. Our results revealed that the developed method can discriminate the samples and control the quality of sennosides in herbal products. Graphical Abstract