HPLC separation and relative quantitation of kaempferol glycosides in soybean

Summary

An HPLC method is described for the determination of kaempferol glycosides in soybean leaf extracts. The method is rapid and can provide qualitative and relative quantitative results for 9 kaempferol glycosides. The flavonol glycosides are extracted from soybean leaves by shaking the samples in 50% methanol; the extracts are filtered, evaporated to dryness and reconstituted in methanol before further purification through a C-18 Sep-Pak column. The samples are injected onto a C-18 HPLC column, separated by gradient elution with a 1% phosphoric acid: methanol mixture and detected on a UV/VIS diode-array detector. Flavonols were monitored at 265 and 348 nm and spectra from 180 to 400 nm were stored and used as an aid in identification. Relative quantities of the kaempferol glycosides among soybean cultivars were calculated from their proportion of peak area in the chromatograms. Total kaempferol concentration of the extracts was calculated after acid hydrolysis of the kaempferol glycosides to the aglycone and comparison of peak areas to kaempferol standards.