Application of Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography for the Quantification of Flavonoids in Genista tinctoria Extract

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) was employed to investigate chromatographic behavior of selected flavonoids from their different subgroups differing in polarity. Chromatographic measurements were performed on two different HILIC columns: unmodified silica (Atlantis-HILIC) and zwitterionic sulfoalkylbetaine (SeQuant ZIC-HILIC). Separation parameters such as content and type of organic modifier were studied. On ZIC column retention factors were observed to be inversely proportional to the buffer content in the mobile phase, which is the typical partitioning mechanism. In the case of bare silica column more or less apparent dual retention mechanism was observed, depending on the water component content in the mobile phase. ZIC-HILIC showed better selectivity (in comparison to silica column) with the detection limit of 0.01 mg/L (only for rutin was 0.05 mg/L). Finally, this chromatographic procedure was validated and applied for the determination of some flavonoids in Genista tinctoria L. extract.