Quantitative Analysis of Flavonoid Glycosides in Sophora japonica and Sophora flavescens by HPLC-DAD

Recently, a phytoestrogenic functional food has been developed using the fruits of Sophora japonica. Phytochemical investigation of fruits of S. japonica led to the isolation of eight flavonoid glycosides using various chromatographic techniques. The isolated compounds were identified as genistin (1), sophoricoside (2), genistein 7,4'-di-O-β-D-glucopyransoide (3), sophorabioside (4), genistein-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside-4'-O-[(α-L-rhamnopyranosyl)-(1→2)-β-D-glucopyranoside] (5), sophoraflavonoloside (6), nicotiflorin (7) and kaempferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-β-D-glucopyranoside (8), respectively, by comparison of their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literature. In addition, a new HPLC-DAD method for simultaneous determination of the isolated compounds was developed to quantitate the contents of flavonoids in S. japonica and S. flavescens. The method was validated in terms of limit of detection, limit of quantitation, specificity, linearity, precision and accuracy. The validated method was successfully applied to determine eight flavonoids in two Sophora species. The contents of eight flavonoids varied according to the parts and species. Particularly, it was found that only the fruits of S. japonica contained sophoricoside, a phytoestrogenic isoflavone.