Quantitative Determination of Phenolic Acids in Lonicera Japonica Thunb. Using High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography

A new, simple, precise, and rapid high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitative determination of three phenolic acids, namely, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid and chlorogenic acid from flower buds of Lonicera japonica. The separation of these compounds was carried out on silica gel 60F254 eluted with ethyl acetate:chloroform:methanol:formic acid:water (6:2.5:1.5:0.6:0.1 v/v/v/v) and a detection wavelength at 330 nm. The developed method gave a good linear regression relationship between peak area and an observed concentration range of 200–1200 ng spot−1 for the three aforementioned marker compounds. Spike recoveries were within 97.81–101.59% and the RSD values of precision were in the range of 0.65–3.21%. The method presented good results for the following parameters: selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, robustness, as well as limit of detection and limit of quantification. Therefore, this method could provide a simple analytical tool for the quality control of Lonicera japonica raw material and its products.