Determination of the alkaloid content in different parts of some Mahonia plants by HPCE

The contents of three quaternary alkaloids (berberine, palmatine, jatrorrhizine) in different parts of some plants of the genus Mahonia were determined by high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE). The background electrolyte system composed of 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0)–methanol (2:1 V/V) was found to be the most suitable solution for this separation. Brucine was used as internal standard. The linear calibration ranges were 0.004986–0.4986 mg ml⁻¹ (r=0.9990, n=5) for berberine, 0.005049–0.5049 mg ml⁻¹ (r=0.9996, n=5) for palmatine, and 0.005058–0.5058 mg ml⁻¹ (r=0.9984, n=5) for jatrorrhizine. The relative standard deviations were 1.56%, 1.02%, and 1.60% for berberine, palmatine, and jatrorrhizine (n=6), respectively. The recoveries were determined to be 96.00–101.66% for berberine, 100.15–102.97% for palmatine, and 96.68–102.44% for jatrorrhizine. By using proposed HPCE method, three alkaloids were well-separated within only 5.0 min.