12th International Conference of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Anthocyanins are pigments belonging to the group of flavonoids, glycosylated derivatives of anthocyanidins. Its use has been reported as an antioxidant and natural food pigment. Hibiscus flowers are reported in the literature as an important source of these substances.
The objective was to isolate significant quantities of an anthocyanin pool for use as a chemical substance of reference.
Dry leaves were macerated with ethanol:water 7:3, pH 1. Extract was filtered, concentrated, and then lyophilized to obtain the dry extract, which was resuspended in methanol to be analyzed and fractionated by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with Acetonitrile and 4.5% Formic Acidin elution gradient.
Preliminary mass spectrometric assays indicated the presence in 3 isolated fractions of Delfinidine-3-O-Sambubioside, Cyanidine-3-O-Glycoside and Delfinidine-3-O-Glycoside.
The anthocyanins fractions showed HPLC purity greater than 95%, thus being useful to quantify specific or total anthocyanins in plant extracts in research projects of Biodiversity Chemical Laboratory.