A comparison of gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography for artemisinin analyses

An improved method for high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (HPLC‐EC) is presented for artemisinin analysis. It involves increased concentration of organic phase, elimination of the degassing step in sample preparation, and reduced time for heating and degassing in mobile phase preparation and recycling. The HPLC‐EC method was compared to a gas chromatographic (GC) method, which measured artemisinin indirectly through two of its degradation products, labelled A and B. Both methods provided a good separation of artemisinin from artemisitene, arteannuin B, and the semisynthetic dihydroartemisinin. Peak B provided a higher correlation to the levels of artemisinin detected by HPLC‐EC. Peaks A, B and Z (a small peak preceding A and B) were identified through electron impact and chemical ionization spectra from GC‐mass spectral analysis.