Optimization and Validation of HPLC-ELSD Method for Determination of Swainsonine in Chinese Locoweeds

Abstract

An HPLC method has been optimized and validated for determining swainsonine, a potent glucosidase inhibitor present in locoweeds (any of several plants of the genera Oxytropis and Astragalus in the pea family, which can cause severe poisoning when eaten by livecstock.) of China with isopropanol as a weak eluent. Swainsonine was separated from an extract of locoweeds on hydrophilic interaction chromatography column, using isopropanol-2 mM ammonium acetate (52:48, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. During post column detection, swainsonine was detected by evaporative light scattering detector. The method was validated and the detection limit was 6 μg/mL. This method is sufficiently sensitive for determining swainsonine in Chinese locoweeds.