Determination of silymarine in the extract from the dried silybum marianum fruits by high performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis

Silybine (SBN), isosilybine (ISBN), silycristine (SCN), silydianine (SDN), and taxifoline (TXF) are the main active flavanoids, generally found in the dried fruits of silybum marianum. The concentrations of these compounds, excepted TXF, are all together usually expressed as silymarine content. In this paper the determination of the silymarine titre was made by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE). Two reversed stationary phases, RP-18 and RP-8, were observed comparing the resolutions of all considered flavanoids with each stationary phases. The HPCE was carried out considering the possible improvement in the resolution of SBN, CN, SDN and TXF using,8-cyclodextrines or organic modifier. The qualitative and quantitative data obtained by HPLC and HPCE were compared. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.