A simple reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for determination of curcumin in aqueous humor of rabbit

This article describes a simple and rapid method for determination of curcumin (diferuloylmethane) in aqueous humor of rabbit using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Analysis was performed using a C-18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μ luna) by isocratic elution with a mobile phase containing 25 mM potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (pH 3.5): Acetonitrile (40:60) and detection at 424 nm using a photodiode array (PDA) detector for curcumin. The regression data for curcumin showed a good linear relationship with r(2)> 0.998 over the concentration range of 0.1-10 μg ml(−1). Relative standard deviations (RSD) for the intraday and interday coefficient of variations for the assay were less than 5.0 and 8.5, respectively. The recovery of the method was between 79.8-83.6%. The quantification limit of the method for curcumin was 0.01 μg ml(−1). This method has good accuracy, precision, and quantitation limit. It is also concluded that the method is useful for measuring very low curcumin concentrations in aqueous humor.