RP‐HPLC Determination of Octanol–Water Partition Coefficients for Bioactive Compounds from Chinese Herbal Medicines

Abstract

Octanol–water partition coefficients (log K _ow) for nineteen traditional Chinese medicinal bioactive compounds spanning a broad range of lipophilicities were measured using a RP‐HPLC method. Fourteen compounds with known log K _ow values were selected as standards. Atom/fragment contribution methods were employed to calculate log K _ow, and for some compounds log K _ow was also determined by the shake flask method. The HPLC values were found to give the best correlation with shake‐flask values.

Keywords:

• Octanol–water partition coefficients
• Chinese herbal medicines
• RP‐HPLC
• Hydrophobicity
• Lipophilicity

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Peking University for financial support.