Quantitative analysis of α-glucosidase inhibitors by ECD with a column of the ion exchange resin of core-shell type filler

The α-glucosidase inhibitors, voglibose (VB), miglitol (MT), and acarbose (AB), are used as postprandial hyperglycemia inhibitors in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to develop a quantitative analytical method for α-glucosidase inhibitors using electrochemical detection (ECD) and column of the ion exchange resin of core–shell type filler. The retention times of VB, MT, and AB were determined as 3.8, 4.0, and 14.9 min, respectively, under measurement conditions of an ECD, column of core–shell type filler, column temperature of 25 °C, flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, injection volume of 20 μL, and a mobile phase consisting of 0.1 mol/L NaOH:0.1 mol/L CH3COONa in 1:1 ratio. The calibration curves of VB, MT, and AB presented good linearity (R2 > 0.99). The repeatability, precision and accuracy were considered good. The limit of detection and quantification of VB were determined to be 0.281 and 0.851 μg/mL, those of MT 0.163 and 0.493 μg/mL, and those of AB 0.161 and 0.489 μg/mL, respectively. In conclusion, the analysis of α-glucosidase inhibitors could be carried out in a simple way using ECD and a column of core–shell type filler.