Hirsutine and hirsuteine are the main pharmacological activity ingredients of Uncaria rhynchophylla (UR), playing an important role in treating mental and cardiovascular diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, Parkinson's disease, potential anti-cancer activities and so on.To develop a cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (CD-MEKC) method for the simultaneous separation and determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine from UR and its formulations.The optimal method was developed by investigating influences of significant factors on the separation, and this method was successfully applied for the determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine in UR and its formulations.The optimal background electrolyte (BGE) consisted of 40 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 7.0), 150 mM 2,6-dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin (DM-β-CD), 3 mM mono-(6-ethylenediamine-6-deoxy)-β-cyclodextrin (ED-β-CD), and 30 mM sodium cholate (SC). Under these conditions, hirsutine and hirsuteine were successfully separated within 13 min at the separation voltage of 15 kV, temperature of 25°C and the detection wavelength of 224 nm. For the analytes, linear calibration curves were performed within the range 5.0-160.0 μg/mL. The limit of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ, S/N = 10) were 0.41, 1.42 μg/mL for hirsutine and 0.60, 2.17 μg/mL for hirsuteine, respectively. The recoveries of three samples were from 97.9% to 102.3%.The method was successfully applied to the determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine in UR and its formulations. Meanwhile, it provides an effective reference of the quality control of UR and its formulations.
