Planta Med 2010; 76 - P33
DOI: 10.1055/s-0030-1251795

Determination of Marker Compounds in Rhodiola Species by HPTLC

CS Rumalla 1, B Avula 1, Z Ali 1, TJ Smillie 1, IA Khan 1, 2
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, MS 38677, USA

Rhodiola rosea L. (Golden Root) is a popular plant in traditional medical systems in Eastern Europe and Asia, with a reputation for stimulating the nervous system, decreasing depression, enhancing work performance, reducing fatigue, and preventing high altitude sickness [1,2]. The active constituents reported from this plant are from two main classes: hydroxyphenyl glucoside i.e. salidroside and phenylpropanoids i.e. rosin, rosarin and rosavin.

The present study was carried out with the objective of developing a simple and fast method for the separation and quantitative determination of marker compounds [rosin (1), rosarin (2) and rosavin (3)] of a methanolic extract of Rhodiola rosea L., including a comparative study of two different species and commercial preparations using a HPTLC method. The separation of these compounds was carried out on silica gel 60F254 elution with lower layer of chloroform: methanol: water (65:35:10.5 v/v/v) and detection wavelength at 250nm. In all the samples (rosin, rosarin and rosavin) showed good separation with R f values of 0.57 (±0.01), 0.44 (±0.01) and 0.40 (±0.01) respectively. The percentage of rosin, rosarin and rosavin in Rhodiola rosea L. were found to be 0.059% w/w, 0.238% w/w and 0.421% w/w respectively. Where as Rhodiola sachalinensis Borissova contained 0.034% w/w and 0.109% w/w of rosarin and rosavin respectively. The presence of rosin was not detected.

Fig.1: Sample tracks with standard [track A: R. rosea L. extract, track B: Std mix (rosin (1), rosarin (2), rosavin (3)) track C: R. sachalinensis

Acknowledgements: This research is funded in part by The United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No.58–6408–2-0009 and this research is supported in part by Science Based Authentication of Dietary Supplements and Botanical Dietary Supplement Research funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant numbers 5U01FD002071–09 and1U01FD003871–01. References: [1] Petkov VD, Yonkov D, et al. (1986). Acta Physiol Pharmacol Bulg 12: 3–16. [2] Darbinyan V, Kteyan A, et al. (2000). Phytomed 7: 365–371.