2009 Volume 25 Issue 3 Pages 385-388
An HPLC method using fluorescence detection for the quantitation of curcuminoids, such as curcumin (C), demethoxycurcumin (DMC), and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC) in turmeric products is described. This method involves a simple ultrasonic extraction with methanol as a pretreatment of turmeric products. The separation of curcuminoids and 2,5-xylenol (internal standard) was achieved within 30 min on a Cadenza CD-C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm; i.d., 3 µm) with a mixture of acetate buffer and CH3CN. The calibration curves of standard curcuminoids showed good linearities of more than 0.993 of the correlation coefficient. The instrumental detection limits for C, DMC and BDMC (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) were 1.5, 0.9 and 0.09 ng mL-1, respectively. The relative standard deviations of intra-and inter-day assays by curcuminoids spiked to turmeric powder were less than 6.1%. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine curcuminoids in commercial turmeric products, such as turmeric powders, a tablet, a dressing, a beverage, tea, and crude drugs.
