First detailed quantification of silymarin components in the leaves of Silybum marianum cultivated in egypt during different growth stages

Summary A high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the quantitative determination of the active components of silymarin in the leaves of Silybum marianum during different growth stages. In this study, taxifolin and six main active constituents in silymarin, including silydianin, silychristin, diastereomers of silybin (silybin A and B) and diastereomers of isosilybin (isosilybin A and B) were completely separated on a 5-μm ODS column (Luna, Phenomenex, USA) with a mobile phase consisting of methanol and 5 mM NaH2PO4 (pH 3.5 adjusted with phosphoric acid) in a ratio of 45:55 v/v. Quantitation was performed with UV detection at 280 nm, based on peak area. The concentration of each component, as well as the total silymarin concentration was determined and compared with those of the seeds, aiming at optimizing the utilization of the cultivated plant. The developed method was validated with respect to linearity, range, specificity, accuracy, precision, and robustness. The leaves were fou...