Simultaneous analysis of six bioactive lignans inPhyllanthusspecies by reversed phase hyphenated high performance liquid chromatographic technique

Summary An online-hyphenated high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array-mass spectrometry (HPLC-PDA-MS) analytical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of six lignans of therapeutic importance in four Phyllanthus spp. (P. amarus, P. maderaspatensis, P. urinaria, and P. virgatus). HPLC with monolithic reverse phase silica column (4.6 × 100 mm) and simple isocratic elution of methanol-water mixed with dioxane facilitated the separation of lignans of diverse nature such as diarylbutyrolactone, tetrahydrofuran, isomeric aryltetralin, and diarylbutane type for quantitative analysis. Targeted lignans viz. heliobuphthalmin lactone (1), virgatusin (2), hypophyllanthin (3), phyllanthin (4), nirtetralin (5), and niranthin (6) were confirmed unambiguously in four Phyllanthus species by their abundant molecular adduct ions, retention time, UV, and mass spectra as compared with those of reference compounds. Advantages and limitations of both detection techniques for qualitative (fingerp...