Simultaneous determination of main taxoids in Taxus needles extracts by solid‐phase extraction‐high‐performance liquid chromatography with pentafluorophenyl column

A simple and accurate RP-HPLC method with pentafluorophenyl (PFP) column was developed for the simultaneous determination of six taxoids, i.e. paclitaxel, 10-deacetylbaccatin III (10-DAB III), 7-xylosyl-10-deacetyltaxol (7-xyl-10-DAT), 10-deacetyltaxol (10-DAT), cephalomannine and 7-epi-10-deacetyltaxol (7-epi-10-DAT), in the extracts from the needles of three Taxus species. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile (A) and water (B), and the extracts were separated using gradient elution program: 30% A at the first 7 min, and then ramped to 42% A at 8 min, held until 38 min. The developed method was validated with satisfactory precision (RSD < 2.61%), repeatability (RSD < 2.92%) and recovery (95.19-104.47%). The above taxoids in the extracts of Taxus cuspidata, T. chinensis and T. media were analyzed with the developed RP-HPLC method, and the results showed that the contents of different taxoids in three mentioned species were distinct. Maximal amounts of 10-DAB III, 7-xyl-10-DAT and 7-epi-10-DAT appeared in T. chinensis, while T. media possessed the highest content of 10-DAT, cephalomannine and paclitaxel. The developed method is accurate and efficient. It can be reliably used in the improved determination of taxoids for the quality control of Taxus species.