Analysis of aryltetrahydronaphthalene lignans and their glucoside conjugates in podophyllin resin by high-performance liquid chromatography

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system has been developed and optimised for the separation of aryltetrahydronaphthalene lignans of the podophyllotoxin series and their glucoside conjugates. The separations were carried out on an ODS-Hypersil column with CH3OH-water, CH3CN-water, CH3OH-ammonium acetate or CH3CN-ammonium acetate as the mobile phase. The optimised HPLC system has been applied to the analysis of lignans in podophyllin resins. The separations showed the presence of podophyllotoxin, 4'-demethylpodophyllotoxin, podophyllotoxin beta-D-glucoside and 4'-demethylpodophyllotoxin-beta-D-glucoside in Podophyllum emodi resin, while in Podophyllum peltatum resin, alpha- and beta-peltatin and their glucoside conjugates were also detected, in addition to podophyllotoxin.