Determination of hamamelitannin, catechins and gallic acid in witch hazel bark, twig and leaf by HPLC.

Huafu Wang, Gordon J Provan, Keith Helliwell

Index: J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 33(4) , 539-44, (2003)

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Abstract

An HPLC method for the determination of hamamelitannin, catechins and gallic acid in witch hazel bark, twig and leaf has been developed. The separation system consisted of a C18 reversed-phase column, a gradient elution system of methanol/water and orthophosphoric acid, and a photodiode array detector. The concentrations of hamamelitannin, gallic acid, (+)-gallocatechin and (+)-catechin were 4.77, 0.59, 0.22 and 0.39% (w/w), respectively, in the bark. Hamamelitannin and catechins were also detected in the leaves at concentration less than 0.04% (w/w). This method is simple, sensitive and reproducible, ideally suited for rapid, routine analysis.