Thermo Fisher Scientific is pleased to announce a new method that uses high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with charged aerosol detection (CAD) to enable improved quantitation of triterpene content in gotu kola. Low-wavelength UV detection commonly used for triterpene analysis often results in strongly sloping baselines, and interferences from minor components can adversely affect quantitation. Customer Application Note (CAN) 111: Determination of Triterpenes in Centella asiatica (Gotu Kola) by HPLC-CAD demonstrates that charged aerosol detection minimizes these interferences and improves the baseline, thereby enabling improved quantitation of triterpenes in gotu kola.

Gota kola is a small herbaceous annual plant used as a medicinal herb in Ayurvedic medicine and used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a wide variety of conditions including improvement of memory and blood flow. Gota kola is also used as a topical application for skin conditions such as ulcers, wounds, and eczema. The chemical compounds of interest in gotu kola are usually considered to be the ursane- and oleanane-type triterpenes and the triterpene glycosides including asiaticoside, madecassoside (asiaticoside A), asiaticoside B, madecassic acid, asiatic acid, and terminolic acid.

This customer application note and many others can be found at www.thermoscientific.com/dionex under the Documents tab.