HPLC – DAD analysis of galanthamine in Galanthus elwesii Hook.

Galanthamine, an important alkaloid found in Amaryllidaceae species, is a long acting, selective, reversible and competitive acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. It is used for the treatment of mild and moderate cases of Alzheimer's disease [1]. Although the total synthesis of this alkaloid has been reported [2,3], the production of this alkaloid from Amaryllidaceae plants, is still considered important. Therefore, various methods have been described concerning the quantification of this compound in Amaryllidacaeae species [4–6]. In this study, aerial parts and bulbs of Galanthus elwesii Hook., collected from three different localities in Southern Turkey, were quantitatively analyzed for their content of galanthamine, by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The chromatographic separation was performed using an isocratic system with a mobile phase of trifluoroacetic acid-water-acetonitrile (0.01:90:10) applied at a flow rate 1 mL min^–1 using diode array detector [4]. The contents of galanthamine in aerial parts and bulbs of G. elwesii collected from Cimi village (Antalya) were 0.35 and 0.04%, respectively. The aerial parts of G. elwesii collected from Ibradi (Antalya) was found to contain 0.29% galanthamine, whereas the bulbs contained 0.10% of this alkaloid. Galanthamine was not detected in samples of G. elwesii growing in Kayrak village (Mersin).

Acknowledgements: This study was financially supported by Ege University Research Fund (09/ECZ/037). B. Sarikaya was a recipient of TUBITAK research fellowship.

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