Liquid chromatographic monitoring of phytoecdysteroid production of Serratula wolffii

Seasonal dependence of 20-hydroxyecdysone content of Serratula wolffii was monitored. Thin-layer chromatography was used after a single clean-up using polyamide. High performance liquid chromatography was employed for the analysis, after removal of the high excess of flavonoids and other impurities using a clean-up on both C18 and polyamide. Parallel analyses using both thin layer chromatography with densitometry and high performance liquid chromatography gave similar results at the determination of vegetation dependence of ecdysteroids. Results indicated two maxima of ecdysteroid content (w/w), such as beginning of vegetation (in April and May) and during blossoming (in August). The two ecdysteroids, 20-hydroxyecdysone and polypodine B were also isolated from Serratula wolffii, their chemical structures were identified by spectroscopic methods.