Planta Med 2011; 77 - PL41
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282690

Quantitative Determination of Galanthamine and Lycorine in an endemic Galanthus species: G. cilicicus

G Kaya 1, D Cicek Polat 1, MA Onur 1, N Unver Somer 1
  • 1Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ege University, Bornova- Izmir 35100, Turkey

Galanthus cilicicus Baker, an endemic species of the genus Galanthus L. (Amaryllidaceae), is distributed in southern Turkey mainly in the province of Içel [1]. Galanthamine, the most important alkaloid found in Amaryllidaceae species, is used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease [2]. Lycorine, another important and also a widespread alkaloid found in Amaryllidaceae plants has been proven to have several biological activities [3,4]. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been used and validated for the determination of lycorine and galanthamine in G. cilicicus. The extraction of both alkaloids in low-mass plant samples, were carried out by a simple and a rapid method utilizing pre-packed columns with diatomaceous earth (Extrelut®) [5]. The chromatographic separation was performed using an isocratic system with a mobil phase of trifluoroacetic acid-water-acetonitrile (0.01: 92.5: 7.5) and diode array dedector [6]. The linearity of the method was studied by injecting five known concentrations of lycorine in the range of 1–10µg mL-1 and five known concentrations of galanthamine in the range of 2.5–20µg mL-1 The calibration curves for lycorine and galanthamine were determined as Y=13.2828995x + 0.4488635 and Y=10.1354031x +0.5465348, respectively. Validation procedures showed that the method was specific, accurate and precise. The above-mentioned method was applied to the aerial parts and bulbs of G.cilicicus. The contents of galanthamine and lycorine in the bulbs of G.cilicicus were found to be 0.016% and 0.0035%, respectively. In the aerial parts, lycorine was not detected, however the content of galanthamine was found as 0.015%.

Acknowledgement: This study was financially supported by Ege University Research Fund (09/ECZ/037) and partially supported by TUBITAK (TBAG-104T272) and EBILTEM (2007-BIL-007).

References: 1. Davis AP (2006) The Genus Galanthus-Snowdrops in the Wild, in Bishop M., Davis A.P., Grimshaw J. (Eds.), Snowdrops, A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus. Griffin Press Publishing Ltd. Cheltenham.

2. Heinrich M, Teoh HL (2004)J Ethnopharmacol 92:147–162.

3. Szlàvik L, et al. (2004) Planta Med 70: 871–873.

4. Sener B et al. (2003) Phytotherapy Res 17: 1220–1223.

5. Berkov S et al. (2008) Phytochem Anal 19: 285–293. 6. Mustafa NR et al. (2003)J Liq Chromatogr R T 26: 3217–3233.