PMFs Analysis of Krachaidum Products by HPLC and GC

Polymethoxyflavones (PMFs) are a group of polymethoxylated bioactive flavones with diverse biological activities, including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral activities. PMFs are found from various plants such as orange, tangerine, and krachaidum. To establish the simple quantitative analytical methods for PMFs, chromatographic analysis was applied to the selected krachaidum foods because krachaidum contains diverse PMFs compared to other PMF-containing foods. Krachaidum is the rhizome of Kaempferia parviflora, and many commercial krachaidum products, such as tea, juice and wine, are commercially available and consumed as health functional foods in Asian countries. Apart from the claimed health promoting benefits, reliable quality assurance and legal guideline for the registration of these products are not available yet. Twelve PMFs were analyzed from the commercial krachaidum foods by GC-FID and HPLC-DAD. No single chromatographic method could not analyze 12 PMFs simultaneously. HPLC-DAD method was found more sensitive to detect PMFs. Based on our analysis data, we proposed 5,7-dimethoxyflaone and 5,7,4'-trimethoxyflavone as index components for the food products.