Discriminating the xanthones in an extract of Swertia franchetiana by retention parameters

The quantitative structure--retention relationship is one of the most actively studied topics in the field of chromatography. In this paper, retention parameters of components were used to discriminate the xanthones in a methanol extract of Swertia franchetiana The extract was analysed by HPLC under two different multistage linear gradient conditions and the retention parameters calculated from these retention data. It was found that the retention parameters of xanthones are in a specific region in the plot of log k(w) vs. S and the xanthones in the extract could be distinguished from other components by this feature. Furthermore, xanthone aglycones and xanthone glucosides could also be discriminated by retention parameters.