Identification and determination of active components in Gastrodia elata Bl. by capillary electrophoresis

Abstract Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), using a 25 m M borate buffer (pH 10.0) with 10% (v/v) acetonitrile, was established for the identification and determination of five constituents – gastrodin (GA), 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (HA), vanillyl alcohol (VA), 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (HD) and vanillin (VL) – in the extracts of Gastrodia elata Bl. roots. Regression equations revealed linear relationships (correlation coefficients: 0.9992–0.9999) between the peak area of each constituent (GA, HA, VA, HD and VL) and its concentration. The relative standard deviations of the migration times of five constituents ranged between 0.99 and 1.43%. The recoveries of five constituents ranged between 94.3 and 109.2%. The GA, VA and HA contents measured 6.18 mg/g (1.11% RSD), 0.71 mg/g (0.86% RSD) and 0.25 mg/g (8.56% RSD), respectively, in the sample of Gastrodia elata Bl. collected in Sichuan province. Also, the dissociation constant of GA was determined by a CE method.