Rapid Extraction and High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Parthenolide in Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)

A rapid and sensitive method for quantifying parthenolide in feverfew herb (Tanacetum parthenium) was developed that is significantly faster than those reported in the literature. The extraction system consisted of acetonitrile/water (90:10, v/v) in a bottle with stirring for 30 min. Both Soxhlet and bottle-stirring extractions were studied. Samples were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography with a Cosmosil C18-AR column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm, 120 Å). The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile/water (55:45, v/v) with a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min and UV detection at 210 nm. Analysis time was 6 min, with a detection limit of 0.10 ng on column. The calibration curve was linear over a range of 0.160−850 μg/mL parthenolide with R 2 = 0.9999. Replicate tests indicated good reproducibility of the method with an RSD% = 0.88 (n = 10). Spike recovery of parthenolide was found to be 99.3% with an RSD% = 1.6 (n = 6). Keywords: Parthenolide; feverfew; Tanacetum parthenium; HPLC; extraction