HPLC -UV Method Development and Quantification of Eugenol from Methanolic Extracts of Some Spices.

Eugenol is one of the important constituents in various spices such as clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, tulsi oils which are widely used as flavouring agents in foods and beaverages. In this study, a simple, sensitive and precise reversed- phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed, validated and used for quantitative determination of eugenol from the methanolic extracts of spices viz, dried bud powder of clove, bark powder of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, leaves powder of Cinnamomum tamala, seed powder of Myristica fragrans and leaves powder of Ocimum sanctum. The soxhlet extraction method was used for the extraction of these compounds. The reverse – phase HPLC analysis was carried out using C₁₈ (150mm x 4.6mm, 5 µm) column and a mobile phase comprising of methanol : acetonitrile : water in the volume ratio of ( 10 : 50 : 40 ) which was obtained by trial and error method at a flow rate of 0.7 cm³/min in an isocratic system. This method was developed for both standard eugenol and eugenol present in methanolic extracts of various spices. The detection and quantitation of both compounds was carried out at 280 nm.