Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Determination of Anethole in Rat Plasma

Vinicius HV Fagundes¹, Rilson J Pinho¹, Luiz AM Wiirzler¹, Elza Kimura², Ciomar A Bersani-Amado¹, Roberto KN Cuman¹

¹Department of Pharmacology; ²Department of Pharmacy, University of MaringÃ¡, Avenue Colombo, 5790, Maringa- Brazil.

For correspondence:- Roberto Cuman Email: rkncuman@uem.br Tel:+554430114923

Received: 12 May 2013 Accepted: 13 March 2014 Published: 23 May 2014

Citation: Fagundes VH, Pinho RJ, Wiirzler LA, Kimura E, Bersani-Amado CA, Cuman RK. High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Determination of Anethole in Rat Plasma. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(5):793-799 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i5.21

© 2014 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To identify and quantify anethole in the essential oil of fruits of Illicium verum Hook (star anise) and in vivo in rat plasma using reverse-phase liquid chromatography.

Methods: Anethole was identified in the essential oil of the fruits of Star anise and determined by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry (UV-VIS). A simple, sensitive and validated high performance liguid chromatography (HPLC) technique with UV-VIS detection method was developed for the determination of the compound in rat plasma using: methanol-water (85:15, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 ml/min Hypersil ODS Thermo (150 mm ´ 2.1 mm ´ 3.0 µM) as column with wavelength detection at 259 nm.

Results: GC determination showed that anethole in the essential oil of star anise exhibited a retention time of 21.02 min. The validation results for anethole in plasma were satisfactory, with coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.9945 and relative standard deviation of < 3 %. HPLC run time of 4 min with a retention time of 2.73 min was the faster method to determine anethole when compared to a previously reported method which had a run time of 15 min.

Conclusion: Anethole in the essential oil of Illicium verum Hook can be identified and determined by GC-MS, NMR and UV-VIS, and a superior HPLC method has been developed for the determination of the compound in rat plasma.

Keywords: Anethole, High performance liguid chromatography, Star anise, Essential oil, Rat plasma, Illicium verum Hook