STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF HOST TREE ON THE QUALITY OF PARASITIC LORANTHUS BY DETERMINING BERBERINE

Berberine of parasitic loranthus and their host trees (Clausena lansium and Diospyros kaki) was determined by reversed-phased high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). It was extracted with methanol:hydrochloric acid solution (100:1, V/V). Analytical determination was carried out by RP-HPLC UV detection at 284 nm. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a UltimateR○ XB-C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) by isocratic elution with acetonitrile:0.1% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution:phosphoric acid (32:68:0.02, V/V/V) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The method was linear in the concentration range of 0.78-311.20μg/mL (r=0.9999). The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.05μg/L and the limit of quantification(LOQ) was 0.15μg/L. The average recovery was 97.76%. Berberine contents were 0.19-1.27 mg/g in Clausena lansium and 0.09-0.45 mg/g in parasitic loranthus growing on Clausena lansium, respectively. Berberine could not be determined in Diospyros kaki and parasitic loranthus growing on Diospyros kaki. The results show that host trees could affect the quality of parasitic loranthus by delivering inherent components of host trees to parasitic loranthus.