Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: For herbal medicines, it is necessary to carry out the chemical analysis of marker compounds for quality control purposes and their effective application. Semen Sojae Praeparatum is a traditional Chinese medicine derived from fermented seed of Glycine max ( L. ) Merr. with the traditional properties of getting rid of “vexation” and expelling “exogenous evils” from the body surface. In the present study, the qualitative and quantitative analyses of soy isoflavones in Semen Sojae Praeparatum were carried out by TLC and HPLC. The TLC chromatograms of Semen sojae praeparatum and a Chinese patent medicine containing it were obtained exhibiting a good separation with a system consisting of toluene-ethyl acetate-acetone formic acid ( 20:4:2:1 ), with daidzein being used as a reference substance. Basic and acid hydrolytic procedures for the HPLC analysis of soy isoflavones of Semen Sojae Praeparatum, including daidzin, glycitin, genistin, malonyl daidzin, malonyl glycitin, malonyl genistin, daidzein, glycitein and genistein, were investigated. The results indicated that both hydrolytic procedures are suitable for the determination of malonylglucosides, and their content in the test samples varied markedly.

Key words: Semen Sojae Praeparatum, soy isoflavones, TLC, HPLC, malonylglucosides, hydrolysis