Effective separation of α-asarone and β-asarone in TCM by covalent organic framework modified by magnetic solid phase extraction

Abstract The separation of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is of great significance in determining the efficacy of TCM as well as the pharmacological study of active ingredients, improving the scope of application of TCM and the efficiency of disease prevention and treatment. In the current study, we have successfully synthesized a core-shell structure magnetic microsphere Fe3O4-COF for the separation of α-asarone and β-asarone in the combined decoction of Acorous Tatarinowii Rhizoma (ATR) and Polygalae Radix (PR). The successful synthesis of Fe3O4-COF was demonstrated chemically and morphologically by using five characterizations such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Extraction conditions were investigated and optimized, including adsorbent dosage, adsorption time, sample pH value, elution solvent, elution time and volume of elution solution. Under the optimal experimental conditions, we got a low limit of detection (LOD) of α-asarone and β-asarone were 0.0379 μg/ml and 0.0432 μg/ml, and the relative standard deviations (RSD) were less than 2.3%. And the number and intensity of impurity peaks in the chromatogram after extraction of complex samples were significantly reduced and the good recoveries were still maintained after multiple extractions of complex samples, which showd satisfied specific adsorption and excellent resistance to matrix interference. The successful establishment of this method will provide a new direction for the separation and analysis of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.