Identification and determination of geniposide contained in Gardenia jasminoides and in two preparations of mixed traditional Chinese medicines

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method was applied to the determination of the geniposide concentration in Gardenia fruit and preparations of traditional Chinese medicine using a mobile phase of acetonitrile–methanol–5 mM monosodium phosphate (pH 4.6) (5:15:80, v/v/v). Intra-assay and inter-assay accuracy and precision of the analyses were ≤10% in the range of 0.1 through 50 μg/ml. The presence of geniposide in the medicinal herb and its preparations was ascertained by retention time, spiking with an authentic standard, change of detection wavelength and change of the composition of the mobile phase. The concentration of geniposide in the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis var. grandiflora Nakai is higher than that in Gardenia jasminoides Ellis. The concentration of geniposide in the traditional Chinese herbal medicine preparations, Huang-Lian-Jiee-Dwu-Tang (66.27±1.98 mg/g) and In-Chern-Hau-Tang (68.54±2.62 mg/g) was less than in the herb Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (73.44±2.62 mg/g) itself.