OPTIMIZATION OF ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR QUANTIFICATION OF 5-METHOXYCANTHIN-6-ONE BY FACTORIAL DESIGN AND PRELIMINARY STABILITY TEST

Studies of natural products emerge as an important medicinal resource. An example is the use of Zanthoxylum chiloperone (Rutaceae) for medicinal purposes against neglected diseases, as for example, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. The analysis of the chemical composition of this medicinal plant was carried out by chromatrographic techniques to evaluate its pharmacological applications. The use of factorial design is currently the most common optimization technique used in the design of chromatographic experiments. We proposed the optimization and validation of the analytical methods, working with high-performance liquid chromatographic coupled with array diode array detection (HPLC-DAD), and finally, we developed the first stability test of natural 5-methoxycanthin-6-one (5-MCT). The establishment of the analytical methodology was performed using a full factorial design. The quantitative determination of 5-MCT was validated with the parameters of the factorial design: temperature of 25 ºC, methanol concentration of 70%, and flow of 0,8 mL/min. Preliminary stability tests showed that some conditions presented significant reductions of 5-MCT, and the respective equations were formulated. Ten related degradation products were characterized. The factorial design utilized in this study allowed to enlarge the spectrum of analysis of canthinones, providing more reliable data for the construction of analytical methodologies for natural products.