Quantitation Methods of Thermopsis Alkaloids: A Review

INTRODUCTION. The major alkaloids of Thermopsis lanceolata R. Br. herb are thermopsine (N-methylcytisine), pachycarpine, and anagyrine, while the seeds predominantly contain cytisine used to treat tobacco addiction. Differing toxicity and pharmacological activity of separate alkaloids requires both control of their total content and monitoring of each individual alkaloid.

AIM. This study aimed to prospectively assess the use of certain analytical methods for quantitation of Thermopsis alkaloids.

DISCUSSION. Pharmacopoeial titrimetric method is labour-intensive, time-consuming, has low detection accuracy of the test solution at the titration endpoint, uses toxic solvents, and, most importantly, only determines the sum of alkaloids without differentiating them. Spectrophotometric methods as well do not allow for the reliable determination of individual alkaloids due to the lack of selectivity (spectral overlap for certain alkaloids), and the determination depends heavily on the sampling conditions. So far, the most reliable instrumental methods for Thermopsis herb assay are thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

CONCLUSIONS. TLC and HPLC methods can be used in pharmacopoeial analysis to isolate and quantify individual alkaloids (identify cytisine and thermopsine), as well as to identify the impurities from Thermopsis seeds in medicinal products not intended for the treatment of tobacco addiction.

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