Three phase dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) based on reverse micelles for the enrichment of Q-markers of cinnamic acids in traditional Chinese medicine

Abstract

This work describes three phase dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on reverse micelles for the determination of Q-markers of cinnamic acids (caffeic acid, p-hydroxycinnamic acid, ferulic acid, and cinnamic acid) in traditional Chinese medicine followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The variables influencing the procedure were optimized separately. Enrichment factors from 110 to 189, linearities from 1.2 to 960 ng mL⁻¹ with r² exceeding 0.9943, detection limits from 0.1 to 0.6 ng mL⁻¹, excellent precision with relative standard deviations below 5.6%, and good relative recoveries from 80.0% to 113.3% were achieved. In addition, the mechanism of the procedure was explored by comparison with conventional dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction at the optimum conditions. The results showed that the developed microextraction procedure improved the sensitivity and consumed less organic solvent and is a greener approach.

Keywords:

• Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME)
• high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
• Q-markers
• reverse micelles
• traditional Chinese medicine

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 81973287) and the Doctoral Startup Foundation of Shanxi Medical University (grant XD1920).