Optimized high performance liquid chromatography tandem chemiluminescent detector applied to assess the antioxidative activity of Caulis Stauntoniae assisted by chemometrics

Caulis Stauntoniae is a folk herb used as an analgesic in southern China. Previous studies have reported that the triterpenoid saponins present in this herb have analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects. In an attempt to further elucidate the antioxidative mechanism of Caulis Stauntoniae, high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection coupled with chemiluminescent detection was performed to analyse Caulis Stauntoniae extracts. Caffeic acid esters and bisepoxylignan glycoside in Caulis Stauntoniae were found to be bioactive as antioxidants. Regarding the methodology, it has been frequently reported that serious baseline drift of the chemiluminescent signal occurred as the amount of organic phase in the mobile phase was increased and it was not possible to use chemiluminescence detection for further analysis. In our study, aiming to solve this problem, satisfactory performance of the analysis has been achieved by optimization of conditions and introduction of a blank run.