Certification and uncertainty evaluation of flavonoids certified reference materials

Can Quan, Huanfang Yao, Caixia Hou

Division of Chemistry, National Institute of Metrology, Beijing 100013, China.

DOI: 10.4236/as.2013.49B016                

Abstract

Flavonoids are the most widely used in the field of the food, medicine, and cosmetic due to their pharmacological functions and biological activities, such as anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and antioxidation. This work described the assignment of purity values to 3 flavonoids certified reference materials (CRMs) including baicalein, 5,7-dihydoxy flavones and naringenine which were developed in this study according to the ISO Guides 34 and 35. The qualitative analysis was performed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR). The CRMs’ purity values were assigned based on the weighted average of quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance method and mass balance approach with high resolution liquid chromatography-VWD. All the three CRMs with following value mass fractions: baicalein at a certified purity P ± U (k = 2) of 98.8% ± 0.8%; 5,7-dihydoxy flavones of 99.1% ± 0.7% and naringenine of 99.5% ± 1.0% respectively. The homogeneity of the CRMs was determined by an in-house validated liquid chromatographic method. Potential degradation during storage was also investigated and a shelf-life based on this value was established.

Keywords

Flavonoids; Certified Reference Material (CRM); Quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (QNMR); Mass balance approach; Uncertainty

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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