Quantitative determination of total and individual flavonoids in stems and leaves of Buddleja davidii and Buddleja albiflora

BACKGROUND: Buddleja davidii and B. albiflora are two different original plants of the famous crude medicine “Diaoyangchen”. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometric method and a HPLC method were used for the determination of total and individual flavonoids (luteolin and apigenin) contents from their stems and leaves for the first time. RESULTS: From the comparative evaluation, remarkable differences in flavonoids contents were observed between different origins and different parts of the samples. And content of specific flavonoid did not correspond to the total flavonoids contents in Buddleja davidii and Buddleja albiflora. CONCLUSION: With a better accuracy and precision, the methods had been proved simple, rapid, and reliable for quantitative determination of the total flavonoids and luteolin and apigenin in the two phytomedicines. Furthermore, our present study will pave the way of guidelines for the differentiation and standardization and exploitation of individual parts of this herb material.