Determination of Four Phenolic Compounds in Scirpus yagara Ohwi by CE with Amperometric Detection

A method based on capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection has been developed for the determination of trans-resveratrol, scirpusin A, scirpusin B, and p-hydroxycinnamic acid in the rhizomes of Scirpus yagara Ohwi. The effects of the acidity and the concentration of the running buffer, separation voltage, injection time, and detection potential were investigated to acquire the optimum conditions. The detection electrode was a 300 μm diameter carbon disc electrode at a detection potential of +0.90 V. The four analytes could be well separated within 12 min in a 40 cm length fused silica capillary at a separation voltage of 12 kV in a 50 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2). The relation between peak current and analyte concentration was linear over about three orders of magnitude with detection limits (S/N = 3) ranging from 32.2 to 63.4 μg L−1 for the four analytes.