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A HPLC Method for Determination of Ursolic Acid and Betulinic Acids from
their Methanolic Extracts of Vitex Negundo Linn
S. V. Taralkar1*and S. Chattopadhyay2
1
Chemical Engineering Department, MAEER’s Maharashtra Academy of Engineering, Alandi (D), Pune-412105, Maharashtra, India
2
Polymer Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, Uttarakhand, India
Abstract
Ursolic and betulinic acids are very useful nutraceuticals available in herbs. Their quantitative estimation
from the solvent extracts of the herbs is a great challenge. So far all the chromatographic methods available for
identification and quantification of these acids are distinctly different, meaning thereby, each acid would require a
separate method. Reverse phase (RP-HPLC) method is developed for determination of ursolic acid and betulinic
acid from their methanol extract of Vitex negundo Linn leaves. Analysis was carried out using Waters’ symmetry
C-18 column with acetonitrile: methanol (80:20) as isocratic elution mode with UV detection (λ=210 nm). The method
is pretty linear for ursolic acid in the range of 0.01-0.1 mg/ml (R2 = 0.9961) and for betulinic acid in the range of
0.003-0.018 mg/ml (R2 = 0.999). The peaks of ursolic acid and betulinic acid were confirmed by LC-MS. The method
was validated by mixing these acids standards in methanol and found that it is accurate, sensitive and has a good
reproducibility.
Keywords: Vitex negundo linn; Ursolic acid; Betulinic acid; HPLC; weight 456.68 and melting point is 283-285°C. The structure of betu-
LC-MS linic acid is as shown in Figure 2.
Received April 23, 2012; Accepted June 01, 2012; Published June 07, 2012
Page 2 of 6
was estimated by Chen et al. [11] using RP-HPLC method with Sper- C-18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm) column equipped with automatic tempera-
isob Octadecylsilil Silica (ODS) column with acetonitrile and aqueous ture (± 0.1°C) controller module. An isocratic mobile phase of aceto-
H3PO4 as mobile phase and UV detector (λ=206nm). Novotny et al. nitrile: methanol (80:20 v/v) with an elution volume of 0.5 ml/min was
[12] analyzed methanol extract of Staphylea holocorpa Hemsl for ur- selected for identification of both acids. The column temperature was
solic acid content using LC-MS and Shim Pack CLC-CN, C-18 column maintained at 35°C ( ± 0.1°C).
and a mobile phase of methanol: 1% acetic acid. The content of ursolic
acid in the ethanol extract of Eriobotrya was determined by Zuo et al. Preparation and analysis of extract of VN leaves
[13] using HPLC with Methanol: water (88:12) as the mobile phase and 5 gm of shed dry and crashed leaves (particle size 0.42 to 0.60 mm)
λ=210nm wavelength with Symmetry shield RP C-18 column. was subjected to fully baffled 150 ml stirred borosilicate glass vessel (5
Zhao et al. [14] reported RP-HPLC method for simultaneous de- cm ID, and 9.5 cm height) along with methanol (100 ml) as solvent. A
termination of betulin and betulinic acid in white birch bark using four blade turbine type agitator (2 cm diameter) was used for stirring at
Diamonsil C18 column and acetonitrile:water (88:16, v/v) as mobile 500 rpm to ensure all particles remain in suspended condition. Extrac-
phase and UV detector of λ=210nm wavelength. Quantification of tion of ursolic and betulinic acids were carried out at 28°C ( ± 1°C) for
betulinic acid in leaf extract of Orthosiphon stamineus was carried out 2 hrs. The schematic experimental setup is as shown in Figure 3. The
by Akowuah et al. [15] using HPLC with C-18 column and acetoni- samples were collected at fixed interval of time. The collected samples
trile: water acidified to pH 2.08 with phosphoric acid (80:20) at λ=210 were filtered through 0.2 µm membrane filter and analyzed in HPLC
nm wavelength. Puder et al. [16] developed process for extraction of system for determination of recoverable ursolic acid and betulinic acid
betulinic acid from ground plane bark and used HPLC and NMR for from their mixtures.
determination and quantification of betulinic acid. Markus [17] inves- LC-MS analysis of ursolic acid and betulinic acid standard
tigated process for obtaining betulinic acid from methanolic extract of and methanolic extract of Vitex Negundo Linn leaves
ground plane tree cortex and used HPLC for quantification of betulinic
acid. HPLC method was used by Abreu et al. [18] for determination of The methanolic solutions of standards of ursolic acid and betulinic
betulinic acid from extract of Hypericum brasiliense with C18 micro- acid were analyzed with LC-MS for confirmation of the peaks and its
sorb-MV column with acetonitrile: water (9:1) pH 3.0 adjusted with positions. The methanolic extract of Vitex Negundo linn leaves also
phosphoric acid at λ=210 nm wavelength. analyzed with LC-MS for identification of ursolic acid and betulinic
acid in extract. Waters Aquity LC-MS system, Waters TQD Mass detec-
With the above discussion and from the literature available, num- tor and Waters Masslynx 4.1 software was used along with Symmetry
ber of medicinal plants consists of ursolic acid and betulinic acid, which C-18 column (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm) with same mobile phase mentioned
can be extracted simultaneously due to their wide medicinal applica- earlier.
tions. All the existing methods separately determine either ursolic or
betulinic acid from their extracts and each of them was tried to apply Results and Discussion
for a mixture of both these acids and it was found that none of them
is suitable to apply for simultaneous determination of ursolic acid or Determination of ursolic acid and betulinic acid from metha-
betulinic acids from their mixtures. nolic extract
To the best of our knowledge there is no report available that sepa- Series of HPLC methods available in literature were tried to sepa-
rates and estimates both these acids from their mixtures. The objective rate ursolic acid and betulinic acid content from the methanolic extract,
of this work is to determine the ursolic acid and betulinic acid content but none of them was found suitable for separation of both acids by
simultaneously by using one method from their methanol extract of any single method. To overcome this problem, we tried different pos-
Vitex Negundo Linn leaves, because none of the earlier method really sibilities of solvent compositions to change the polarity of mobile phase
does it. for ursolic acid and betulinic acid separation from the methanol ex-
Materials and Methods tract. The reported HPLC method was found suitable for ursolic acid
and betulinic acid separation and quantification simultaneously. In this
The leaves of VN were collected from nearby area of Raigad dis-
trict, Maharashtra, India. The leaves were washed with water and shade
dried (at 30°C for 168 hrs) and pulverized. The powdered mass was
then sorted into various sizes by screening technique and 0.42-0.60 mm
size was taken for further experiments.
Ursolic acid (90%) and betulinic acid (90%) standard were obtained
from Fluka, USA and used as standards for calibration of the HPLC
system. Acetonitrile and methanol of HPLC grade were obtained from
S.D. Fine, India.
Apparatus and chromatographic conditions
Standards of ursolic acid and betulinic acid dissolved in metha-
nol and all unknown samples of methanolic extract were analyzed by
HPLC system of Waters’ (USA). The system consists of Waters HPLC
600 pump, a Rheodyne 7725i injector with 5 µl sample loop, on-line de-
gasser AF (Waters, USA), Waters 2487 Dual λ absorbance UV detector
(at λ=210 nm, for ursolic acid and betulinic acid) with 0.05 aufs sensi-
tivity. Ursolic acid and betulinic acid were analyzed using a Symmetry Figure 3: Schematic of experimental setup.
Page 3 of 6
method, acetonitrile:methanol (80:20) was used as mobile phase with for betulinic acid is 10.92 min ( ± 0.2 min). The method developed
0.5 ml/min elution flow rate, λ=210 nm UV wavelength with 0.05 aufs certainly indicates improved resolution of peaks and better selectivity.
sensitivity. Symmetry C-18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm) column was used for The chromatogram for methanol extract of leaves is shown in Figure
separation and isolation of ursolic and betulinic acids. The HPLC chro- 6. A distinct peak appearing at 12.36 min indicates ursolic acid while
matograms of ursolic and betulinic acid using the developed method the peak at 10.92 min matches with betulinic acid retention time. The
are shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5. peak fractions appearing at 12.36 mins and 10.92 mins were separately
The retention time for ursolic acid is 12.36 min ( ± 0.2 min) while collected in separate sample vowels after injecting the extracts several
1400.00
1200.00
1000.00
Ursolic acid
800.00
mV
600.00
400.00
200.00
0.00
2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 22.00 24.00 26.00 28.00 30.00
Minutes
Figure 4: HPLC Chromatogram of ursolic acid (Residence time = 12.36 min) with Chromatographic conditions: Symmetry
C-18 (4.6×250mm, 5µm) column, acetonitrile:methanol (80:20), λ=210 nm, 0.5 ml/min flowrate.
1200.00
800.00
600.00
mV
400.00
200.00
0.00
2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 22.00 24.00 26.00 28.00 30.00
Minutes
Figure 5: HPLC Chromatogram of betulinic acid (Residence time = 10.92 min) with Chromatographic conditions:
Symmetry C-18 (4.6×250mm, 5µm) column, acetonitrile:methanol (80:20), λ=210 nm, 0.5 ml/min flowrate.
2200.00
2000.00
1800.00
1600.00
1400.00
1200.00
mV
1000.00
Betulinic acid
800.00
600.00
Ursolic acid
400.00
200.00
0.00
0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 22.00 24.00 26.00 28.00 30.00 32.00 34.00 36.00 38.00 40.00 42.00 44.00 46.00 48.00 50.00
Minutes
Figure 6: HPLC Chromatogram of methanolic extract of Vitex Negundo Linn leaves with Chromatographic conditions:
Symmetry C-18 (4.6×250mm, 5µm) column, acetonitrile:methanol (80:20), λ=210 nm, 0.5 ml/min flow rate.
Page 4 of 6
Figure 10: LC-MS analysis of betulinic acid standard with Symmetry C-18
column (4.6×250 mm, 5 µm), acetonitrile:methanol (80:20 V/V), 210 nm.
Page 5 of 6
Figure 14: Batch extraction of ursolic acid and betulinic acid from Vitex Ne-
gundo Linn leaves with methanol as solvent, 0.42-0.60mm particle size and
at 28°C.
shows that the position of ursolic acid and betulinic acid with MS de-
Figure 11 (b): LC-MS spectra of methanolic extract of Vitex Negundo Linn tector and spectra shows the mass of that peak fraction which matches
leaves with Symmetry C-18 column (4.6×250 mm, 5 µm), acetonitrile:methanol with standards of ursolic acid and betulinic acid. These chromatograms
(80:20 V/V), 210 nm wavelength.
are matching with each other at that position and show the exact mass
of pure compounds (ursolic acid and betulinic acid). Figure 11 (a) rep-
resents the chromatograms with UV and MS detector while Figure 11
(b) represents the spectra of extracted sample of identified peaks of ur-
solic acid and betulinic acid. From these figures it is clear that the HPLC
method used for analysis of ursolic acid and betulinic acid is valid. The
results obtained by UV detector at 210 nm wavelength are matching
with MS detector for analysis of ursolic acid and betulinic acid from
methanolic extract of Vitex Negundo Linn Leaves.
Method validation
The HPLC method developed was validated with different propor-
tions of ursolic acid and betulinic acid standards (ursolic acid: betulinic
acid; 0:100, 10:90, 25:75, 40:60, 50:50, 60:40, 75:25, 90:10, 100:0 (v/v))
solutions in methanol. From Figure 12 and Figure 13, it is observed that
Figure 12: HPLC method validation plot for ursolic acid solution. the method is linear for the ursolic acid and betulinic acid concentra-
tion for the range 0.099 to 0.10 mg/ml concentration. Above 0.1 mg/ml
concentration of both acids the linearity lost. The validation plot shows
the R2 value more than 0.97 for both acids (Figure 12 and Figure 13).
This value of standard deviation and the linearity equation shows the
method is valid for the given range of concentrations.
Batch extraction of ursolic acid and betulinic acid from leaves
The batch extraction experiment was carried out with methanol as
solvent and at 28°C to extract the ursolic acid and betulinic acid from
leaves of Vitex Negundo Linn. The collected samples were analyzed
with proposed HPLC method to determine the ursolic acid and betu-
linic acid content. Figure 14 shows, how the concentration of ursolic
acid and betulinic acid increases with increase in extraction time. This
increase in concentration of both acids is due to diffusion mechanism
Figure 13: HPLC method validation plot for betulinic acid solution.
of solutes (ursolic acid and betulinic acid) in solvent (methanol).
This experiment was carried out to verify the validity of the pro-
LC-MS analysis of ursolic acid and betulinic acid standard
posed method. It is found that the proposed HPLC method is valid for
and methanolic extract of Vitex Negundo Linn leaves simultaneous determination of ursolic acid and betulinic acid from
Figure 9, Figure 10 and Figure 11 shows the chromatogram and leaves of Vitex Negundo Linn.
spectra of the ursolic acid, betulinic acid and methanolic extract of Vitex
Negundo Linn leaves respectively by LC-MS. The top chromatograms
Conclusion
in each figure shows that the position of ursolic acid and betulinic acid The HPLC methods available in the literature are tried with the
at 210 nm wavelength of UV Detector and the bottom chromatograms given conditions and with Symmetry C-18 column. These methods did
Page 6 of 6
not show any results in case of ursolic acid and betulinic acid for extract 8. Pisha E, Chai H, Lee IS, Chagwedera TE, Farnsworth NR, et al. (1995) Discov-
of Vitex Negundo Linn. The developed method of HPLC is suitable for ery of betulinic acid as a selective inhibitor of human melanoma that functions
by induction of apoptosis. Nat Med 10: 1046-1051.
simultaneous determination of ursolic acid and betulinic acid from
leaves of Vitex Negundo Linn. The method showed linearity for ursolic 9. Simone CB, Eloir PS, Valquiria LB (2005) HPLC method to assay total saponins
acid and betulinic acid different concentrations. LC-MS analysis shows in Ilex paraguariensis aqueous extract. J Braz Chem Soc 16: 723-726.
the validation of method. From the results of batch extraction experi- 10. Liao Q, Yang W, Jia Y, Chen X, Gao Q, et al. (2005) LC-MS determination and
ments, the method is accurate, sensitive and has a good reproducibility. pharmacokinetic studies of ursolic acid in rat plasma after administration of
the traditional chinese medicinal preparation Lu-Ying extract. Yakugaku Zasshi
Acknowledgements 125: 509-515.
The financial support from AICTE Project (Grant no. 8023/RTD/RPS52/2004- 11. Chen JH, Xia ZH, Tan RX (2003) High perfrmance liquid chromatographic
05) and TEQIP (World-Bank project) for this research work is gratefully acknowl- analysis of bioactive triterpenes in Perilla frutescens. J Pharm Biomed Ana 32:
edged. Authors are thankful to Waters India Ltd for providing LC-MS facility. 1175-1179.
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