RP‐HPLC Determination of Octanol–Water Partition Coefficients for Bioactive Compounds from Chinese Herbal Medicines

Abstract Octanol–water partition coefficients (log K ow) for nineteen traditional Chinese medicinal bioactive compounds spanning a broad range of lipophilicities were measured using a RP‐HPLC method. Fourteen compounds with known log K ow values were selected as standards. Atom/fragment contribution methods were employed to calculate log K ow, and for some compounds log K ow was also determined by the shake flask method. The HPLC values were found to give the best correlation with shake‐flask values.