Analysis of prominent flavonoid aglycones by high-performance liquid chromatography using a monolithic type column

A fast RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous separation of eleven main flavonoid aglycones in food samples was developed. Flavonoids were divided in three groups according to their hydrophobicity and were resolved by a ternary gradient elution and diode array detection within analysis times less than 15 min. The detection limits of the flavonoids studied were in the range between 0.04 and 0.31 μg/mL, with repeatabilities values between 0.4 and 5%. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of these compounds in complex natural samples, like propolis and Ginkgo biloba.