Determination of haematoxylin and brazilin in Caesalpinia sappan extract from various locations in Thailand by high performance liquid chromatography

Caesalpinia sappan L. (sappan wood) has been used in oriental medicine for a long time. The important part of this plant is the heartwood that contains brazilin and haematoxylin, which have several scientific reports in antimicrobial, antihypertension, antioxidant, anticonvulsant and anti-inflammatory activities. This study was undertaken to evaluate haematoxylin and brazilin content by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the water and methanolic extract of C. sappan heartwood collected from 10 locations from the Central, Northern, Northeastern and Western parts of Thailand. Samples were continuously extracted using a soxhlet apparatus with water-methanol (1:1, v/v). The brazilin and haematoxylin content were analyzed by HPLC with methanol and 1% acetic acid as mobile phase. The content of brazilin in 10 samples was 8.7–22.2% w/w while no content of haematoxylin was found.

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