Achiral and chiral determination of benzophenanthridine alkaloids from methanol extracts of Hylomecon species by high performance liquid chromatography.

ABSTRACT

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the qualitative and quantitative determination of benzophenanthridine alkaloids from the methanol extracts of Hylomecon hylomeconoides and H. vernale (Papaveraceae). Achiral and chiral methods were adapted for the separation of 6-methoxydihydrosanguinarine (1), 6-acetonyldihydrosanguinarine (2) and dihydrosanguinarine (3). The achiral reversed phase HPLC method made it possible the simultaneous separation and determination of 1, 2 and 3 within 20 min on ODS column using acetonitrile-phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.0) (5050, v/v). The separation and determination of 1 and 2 enantiomers was available using chiral columns. The same amount of (+) and (-)-enantiomers of 1 was found from the methanol extract of specimen, indicated that 1 could be the artifact produced by the reaction of sanguinarine with methanol. H. hylomeconoides showed higher level of 1 and 3 in compared with H. vernale, especially in root samples permitting the possibility of chemical discrimination between two species.