Quantitative Determination of Curcuminoids from the Roots of Curcuma longa, Curcuma species and Dietary Supplements Using an UPLC-UV-MS Method

An UPLC-UV-MS method was developed for the determination of curcuminoids and ar-turmerone from roots of Curcuma longa L., different species of Curcuma (C. zedoaria, C. phaecaulis, C. wenyujin and C. kwangsiensis) and dietary supplements that claimed to contain C. longa. The separation was achieved within 3.5 minutes using a C-18 column, a water/acetonitrile mobile phase, containing formic acid at a temperature of 35 ̊C. The method was validated for linearity, repeatability, limits of detection and limits of quantification. The limits of detection and limits of quantification of curcuminoids were found to be 0.01μg/mL and 0.03μg/mL, respectively. The total content of curcuminoids (curcumin, desmethoxycurcumin, bisdesmethoxycurcumin) was found to be in the range from 1.164.92% and 0.83-35.37% in samples of C. longa and dietary supplements, respectively. The curcuminoid content was 0.004% for C. zedoaria and 0.0006% for C. phaecaulis. The curcuminoids were not detected in root samples of C. wenyujin and C. kwangsiensis. The developed method is simple, economic, rapid and especially suitable for quality control analysis of curcuminoids. LC-mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (ESI) was used for the identification and confirmation of compounds in various plant samples and dietary supplements.