HPLC analysis of β-sitosterol in herbal medicine and vegetable oils

Abstract

Natural products have been considered anecdotal to the effective maintenance of good health. Solal Beta sitosterol Capsules is a herbal medicine and β-sitosterol is one of its main components. β-sitosterol is known to control cholesterol levels, reduce the activity of cancer cell, promote prostate gland health and enhance immunity in the human body. β-sitosterol can also be found in vegetable oils such as: wheat germ oil, cotton seed oil and so on. The amounts of β-sitosterol in herbal medicines and vegetable oils have not been reported in the literature since an analytical method has not yet been well established. This paper shows that high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a suitable analytical method for determining β-sitosterol levels in Solala beta sitosterol capsules and  several kinds of vegetable oils. HPLC chromatogram of β-sitostero standard and solal betasitosterol capsules  was performed in the mobile phase as  100％ Acetonitrile at pH 6.5 and showed retension time of 67.25 and 67.89 repectively.,95% Acetonitrile and 5% ethanol showed retension time for std beta sitosterol was 55.75,and 85% Acetonitrile and 15% ethanol showed retension time of 36.23 and 36.81 repectively .And Finally The amounts of β-sitosterols of the vegetable oils was also detected by HPLC showing retention time for wheat germ oil is 36.91 ,Cotton seed oil is  36.21 Soya been oil is 36.47 m,Peanut oil is 36.12. Thus this paper gives pertinent conditions for using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to determine the β- sitosterol levels in herbal medicine as well as vegetable oils.