Simultaneous electrochemiluminescence determination of galanthamine, homolycorine, lycorenine, and tazettine in Lycoris radiata by capillary electrophoresis with ultrasonic-assisted extraction

•Simultaneous determination of four Lycoris radiata alkaloids was developed by CE-ECL.•Polyvinylpyrrolidone as an additive was added into the running buffer to obtain good resolution.•The baseline separation of the four alkaloids was gained within 16min.•The proposed method was simple, fast and economical. After ultrasonic-assisted extraction, four lycoris radiata alkaloids: galanthamine, homolycorine, lycorenine, and tazettine were determined by capillary electrophoresis electrochemiluminescence. Polyvinylpyrrolidone was added to the running buffer (RB) to obtain better resolution. Experimental conditions influencing the determination were examined, including the additives, detection potential, separation voltage, injection voltage and time, and RB pH and concentration. Under optimal experimental conditions, the baseline separation of the four alkaloids occurred within 16min. The proposed method displayed the following linear ranges (in ng/mL): galanthamine [60–5000], homolycorine [40–5000], lycorenine [5.0–1500], and tazettine [8.0–2500]. The detection limits in ng/mL, (S/N=3), were galanthamine [14], homolycorine [11], lycorenine [1.8], and tazettine [3.1]. Intra-day and inter-day RSDs for the four alkaloids of the six replicates were less than 2.7% and 3.1%, respectively. The recoveries in% were: tazettine [102.5], lycorenine [98.20], galanthamine [97.30], and homolycorine [98.33].