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ABSTRACT
Flavonoids are compounds which provide many pharmacological activities. In this paper, the literature with regard to the determination of flavonoids using capillary electrophoresis (CE) during 2008–2017 has been reviewed. The aim of the review is to overview the modes and specific determination conditions of CE for flavonoids. The advantages and disadvantages of CE in the determination of flavonoids are analyzed. The applications of the modes of CE for determination of flavonoids are introduced. Capillary zone electrophoresis, micelle electrokinetic capillary chromatography, microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography, and capillary electrochromatography are considered. Specific determination conditions including the pH, buffer, additive, capillary, voltage, temperature, injection, analysis time, detection, and online concentration methods are summarized. Flavonoids were generally separated in alkaline conditions at pH 8–10 in borate buffer. The advantages of CE are the short analysis time and low solvent consumption compared with the most popular high-performance liquid chromatography protocols. CE can be combined with a variety of detectors including ultraviolet spectrophotometry, mass spectrometry, chemiluminescence, electrochemical, potential gradient, dual opposite carbon fiber microdisk electrodes, and laser-induced fluorescence. In CE, short-light path length results in relative low sensitivity when combined with the most widely used ultraviolet spectrophotometry detector. The combination with more sensitive detectors and online concentration methods such as gradient elution, large volume sample stacking, sweeping, and electrokinetic supercharging alleviates this problem and improves the sensitivity. Capillary electrophoresis is an efficient, green, and valuable tool for the determination of flavonoids.