Determination of puerarin by capillary electrophoresis with chemiluminescence detection

A new analytical method for puerarin using capillary electrophoretic (CE) separation and chemiluminescence (CL) detection has been developed. The detection was based on the enhanced CL intensity of the reaction between luminol and potassium ferricyanide by puerarin in alkaline solution. A laboratory-built CE–CL apparatus was deployed for the puerarin detection. Under the optimal conditions, a linear range from 5.0 × 10−8 to 2.5 × 10−6 M and a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−8 M (S/N = 3) for puerarin were achieved. The determination of puerarin was achieved in less than 5 min, and the proposed method was applied to the determination of puerarin in pharmaceutical, human urine and human plasma samples.