Separation and quantification of nine bioactive compounds in traditional Unani formulations by High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Photodiode Array Detector

A new High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Photodiode Array Detector (HPLC–PDA) method has been developed for the chromatographic separation and simultaneous quantitative determination of nine bioactive compounds, i.e. four phenolic (gallic acid, ellagic acid, chebulinic acid, and tannic acid), two flavanoids (rutin and quercetin), two anthraquinones (sennoside A and B) and one oxygenated hydrocarbon (vitamin C) in a well-known Unani polyherbal formulation namely Itrifal’s. Separation was accomplished on a C18 LiChrospher 100 column (5 mm, 250 3 4.6 mm) with a gradient elution and recorded at 254 nm. The results demonstrated that the proposed method is reproducible, accurate, economic, and suitable for the quality control of traditional polyherbal Unani formulations containing complex compounds with different structures such as Itrifals.