Web Release Date: April 7,
Evaluation of the Botanical Authenticity and Phytochemical Profile of Black Cohosh Products by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Selected Ion Monitoring Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
and
The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, Department of Biological Science, Lehman College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Bronx, New York 10468, and State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resource in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650204, Yunnan, People's Republic of China
Received for review March 2, 2006. Revised manuscript received March 8, 2006. Accepted March 9, 2006. This study has been carried out with financial support from the Edith C. Blum Foundation and from the National Institutes of Health-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NIH-NCCAM) (Grants P50-AT00090 and R21 AT002930). The content of this paper is solely our responsibility and does not necessarily reflect the official views of NIH-NCCAM.
Abstract:
Black cohosh (Actaea racemosa L., syn. Cimicifuga racemosa L.) has become increasingly popular as a dietary supplement in the United States for the treatment of symptoms related to menopause, but the botanical authenticity of most products containing black cohosh has not been evaluated, nor is manufacturing highly regulated in the United States. In this study, 11 black cohosh products were analyzed for triterpene glycosides, phenolic constituents, and formononetin by high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection and a new selected ion monitoring liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method. Three of the 11 products were found to contain the marker compound cimifugin and not cimiracemoside C, thereby indicating that these plants contain Asian Actaea instead of black cohosh. One product contained both black cohosh and an Asian Actaea species. For the products containing only black cohosh, there was significant product-to-product variability in the amounts of the selected triterpene glycosides and phenolic constituents, and as expected, no formononetin was detected.
Keywords: Black cohosh; dietary supplements; quality control; triterpene glycosides; phenolic constituents; formononetin; Actaea racemosa; Cimicifuga racemosa; Asian Actaea species
Download the full text: PDF | HTML
