Simultaneous quantitative analysis of biologically important Amaryllidaceae alkaloids in Narcissus tazetta L. subsp. tazetta by HPLC/PDA

The present study was conducted for the quantitative determination of biologically active Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, galanthamine and lycorine, in the bulbs and aerial parts of a subspecies naturally growing in Turkey namely, Narcissus tazetta L. subsp. tazetta collected from Muğla/Turkey. A reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method using an isocratic system consisting of trifluoroacetic acid:water:acetonitrile (0.01:90:10) with a flow rate of 1 mL/min was carried out. Photodiode array detection was employed to determine the UV-visible spectral characteristics of the alkaloids. Determination of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activities of different parts of mentioned subspecies were accomplished using a microplate assay modified from Ellman’s method. This is the first report of the galanthamine content of Narcissus tazetta subsp. tazetta of Turkish origin. 0.0051% and 0.0055% galanthamine was detected in the bulbs and aerial parts of the plant, respectively. Also, lycorine was determined as 0.0250% in the bulbs and 0.0672 % in the aerial parts.