Simultaneous Determination of Four Bioactive Alkaloid Components in the Stems of Three <i>Mahonia</i> Plant Species by HPLC

Is a commonly used Chinese medicinal herb and is derived from the dried stems of Mahonia bealei (Fort) Carr and Mahonia fortunei (Lindl.) Fedde, as recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020). The dried stem of Mahonia confusa Sprague can also be used as a substitute material of Mahoniae caulis in Tujia Nationality residence areas. Alkaloids are thought to be the bioactive chemical constituents in Mahoniae caulis. In this article, a high-performance liquid chromatography method was established for rapid quantitative determination of columbamine, jateorhizine, palmatine and berberine in the three Mahonia plant materials to evaluate and compare their quality. This work provides information for exploration and utilization of potential medicinal resources. In the developed method, a Diamonsil ODS C18 column (5μm, 250mm × 4.6 mm) was used at 30°C. The mobile phase consisted of solution A (acetonitrile) and solution B (50 mm potassium phosphate buffer, pH3.0) with gradient elution at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detection wavelength was 348 nm. The calibration curves for columbamine, jateorhizine, palmatine and berberine were linear over the range of 0.25–10, 1.50–20, 0.50–10 and 2.5–25 μg/mL, with relative standard deviations of 3.74%, 1.85%, 2.21%, and 1.83%, respectively. Results confirmed the accuracy and repeatability of the method as well as its feasibility for quality control of medicinal materials. The determination results showed that the dried stems of M. bealei and M. fortunei exhibited better quality than those of M. confusa. Nevertheless, the dried stem of M. confusa possessed certain quantities of efficient components.