The 2025 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia newly incorporates the determination method for licorice extract content in Huoxiang Zhengqi Water. In accordance with the chromatographic specifications specified in the 2025 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, this study established an assay method for licorice extract in Huoxiang Zhengqi Water using a C18 chromatographic column.
The repeatability test of the reference standard solution yielded an RSD of 0.271% for the retention time of glycyrrhizic acid and an RSD of 0.125% for peak area, with a tailing factor of 0.998 and a theoretical plate number of 13,838 for the glycyrrhizic acid peak, which fully complies with the requirements of the 2025 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.
The isocratic elution procedure prescribed in the 2025 Pharmacopoeia generates impurity peaks from the test sample at 120 min and 180 min, and a total run time of 200 min is required for complete elution of impurities. To address this limitation, the chromatographic conditions were optimized: isocratic elution was applied for the target analyte while gradient elution was adopted to wash out impurities. The total analysis duration was reduced from 200 min to 60 min, enabling rapid elution of impurity peaks. This optimized method can serve as a reference for the quantitative determination of licorice extract in Huoxiang Zhengqi Water.
- Parameter instrumen
Persee L820 High Performance Liquid Chromatograph
L820-P22 Binary High-Pressure Gradient Pump
Autosampler L820-A11
Oven Kolom L820-C11
L820-D10 UV-Vis Detector
LCWin V5.0 Standard Chromatography Workstation
Baki Pelarut L820-C304100001
