Stability indicating method to determine bioactive nucleosides in crude drugs, extracts, and products from cordyceps sinensis and cordyceps militaris

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a stability indicating method to determine bioactive nucleosides including uridine, guanosine, adenosine, and cordycepin in crude drugs, extracts, and products from Cordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps militaris by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. Methods: The C8 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm; i.d. 5 µm) was used, and the mobile phase was a mixture of water (A) and acetonitrile (B). The system was: 0-15 min, 1% B; 15-30 min, 1-15% B. The flow rate was 1 mL/min and the injection volume was 10 µL with ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. Results: The correlation coefficients of linearity were more than 0.9995 for uridine (0.56-11.20 µg/mL), guanosine (0.56-11.21 µg/mL), adenosine (1.13-11.30 µg/mL), and cordycepin (0.279-2.793 µg/mL). The intra- and inter-day precisions were less than 2% and 3%, respectively. The accuracy of the method was in the range of 96.65-100.64%. The studied nucleosides were stable to heat at 90°C for 12 h but were more degraded in 0.1 N H2SO4 and 3% H2O2 than 0.1 N NaOH, and sunlight. Conclusion: The developed method was found to be specific to uridine, guanosine, adenosine, and cordycepin in the presence of sample matrices and their degradation products and could be applied to assess the stability of crude drugs, extracts, and products from C. sinensis and C. militaris. © 2017, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chulalongkorn University. All rights reserved.