Abstract

Adenosine and cordycepin are bioactive compounds with health benefits. Therefore, both substances are often used to assess the quality of Cordyceps products. Optimization and validation of the HPLC/DAD method for determining two nucleosides were studied. The samples were prepared using an ultrasound-assisted extraction (ultrasonic bath). The result was optimal conditions for aqueous extraction, an extraction time of 35 min, and an extraction temperature of 40 °C. The Chromatographic separation was achieved using a reverse phase column (InfinityLab Poroshell 120 EC-C18, 4.6 × 250 mm, 2.7 μm) at 30 °C with a mobile phase gradient elution of water and methanol at a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. The eluents were monitored via a diode array detector at 260 nm. Two nucleosides were separated by less than 12 min after injection. The developed method was found to be excellent linear (r2 > 0.9999), accurate (% recovery 95.34-98.51), and precise (% relative standard deviation < 2.0). The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.45 and 1.38 mg/mL for adenosine and 0.47 and 1.43 mg/mL for cordycepin, respectively. This method was satisfactory for simultaneously quantitating two nucleoside contents, which were used to evaluate Cordyceps products.