Determination of octanol–water partition coefficient for terpenoids using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Octanol–water partition coefficients ( K ow) for 57 terpenoids were measured using a RP-HPLC method. Sample detection was achieved with standard UV and refractive index detectors and required no special column treatment. Measured log K ow values for the terpenoids ranged from 1.81 to 4.48 with a standard error of between 0.03 and 0.08 over the entire range. Partition coefficients determined by the RP-HPLC method were compared against shake flask, atom/fragment contribution, fragment and atomistic methods. The HPLC values were found to give the best correlation with shake flask results. Log K ow values calculated by the atom/fragment contribution method gave the best correlation with the HPLC values when compared to fragment and atomistic methods.