Rapid HPLC Method for Determination of Rebaudioside D in Leaves of <i>Stevia rebaudiana</i> Bertoni Grown in the Southeast of México

Abstract

Stevia leaves contain glycosides on which biological activity and sweetening capacity has been reported. Besides the main glycosides—stevioside and rebaudioside A—there are minor glycosides that may contribute to the activity and thus it is important to quantify them. Rebaudioside D is one of the minor glycoside present in <i>S. rebaudiana</i> leaves and there are no reports of a validated method to quantify it. Therefore a simple and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was validated for the determination of rebaudioside D in leaves of <i>Stevia rebaudiana</i> B. grown in the southeast of México. HPLC method was performed using a C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) and UV detector set at 210 nm. The mobile phase consisted of 32:68 (v/v) mixture of acetonitrile and sodium phosphate buffer (10 mmol/L, pH 2.6), set to a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The calculated parameters were: sensitivity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy and precision. The retention time of rebaudioside D was found to be 3.47 min ± 0.04 (S.D.). The calibration curves were linear over the working range (25 - 150 μg/ml), with correlation coefficient ≥0.99 and determination coefficient ≥0.98. The calculated limit of detection (LOD) was 8.53 μg/ml, while the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 25.85 μg/ml. The percent recoveries of fortified samples were 100% ± 10% and precision relative standard deviation was ≤2.79%. The criteria of validation showed accuracy, linearity, and precision; therefore the method is suitable for quantitative analysis of rebaudioside D in <i>Stevia rebaudiana</i> leaves. Rebaudioside D content (g/100g) in Morita II and Criolla varieties grown in the southeast of Mexico were 0.43 and 0.46, respectively with no significant differences (p > 0.05) between them.