Quantitative analysis of alizarin in tissue cultures of <i>Rubia</i> species by high performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

Abstract A rapid, high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of alizarin in field grown roots and tissue cultures of Rubia tinctorum and R. peregrina. Alizarin was quantified by HPLC in the presence of trichlorophenol as internal standard using an RP C‐18 Nova‐pak® column eluted isocratically with methanol: 10% aqueous acetic acid (60:40). The minimum detection limit of alizarin was found to be 10.5 ng. The field grown roots and callus of R. tinctorum contained, respectively, 939.6 (±17.4) and 335.2 (±4.9) μg/g dry weight total alizarin, whilst similar tissues of R. peregrina contained 147.9 (±10.0) and 216.8 (μ0.4) μg/g dry weight total alizarin.