Abstract:

The aim was to compare the quality of four different varieties of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge according to the content of the six chemical compounds (tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA, protocatechuic acid, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B) in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge with HPLC-UV. The HPLC was run on Venusil ASB-C18columns with methanol-water or acetonitrile-0.01% phosphoric acid solution as mobile phase in isocratic elution mode at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The gradient elution program was set at 270 nm or 286 nm. The results indicated that the quality of different varieties of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge was significantly different. Five components contents were the highest in 99-3 and the rosmarinic acid content was lower than that in 99-2, which was higher than that in the other two species. There were only four components (cryptotanshinone, protocatechuic acid, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B) in ‘Shanhuang’ and their levels were lower than those in the other three varieties. The contents of four components (tanshinone IIA, protocatechuic acid, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B) in 99-2 were higher than those in the Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge of Shandong Province. It was simple and reliable to use HPLC-UV method for determing Salvia chemical composition content. The quality of 99-3 was the best in the four varieties of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge and it had higher commercial value.