Abstract: Abstract: An effective method for separating and concentrating scoparone from artemisia capillaris Thunb by solvent sublation and its determination by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was established. The experimental conditions such as pH of solution, type of solvent, nitrogen flow rate and sublation time were optimized for efficient sublation. The optimum conditions of the solvent sublation were obtained, that is n-octanol as the sublation solvent, pH 9 of the solution, a nitrogen flow rate of 50 ml/min and sublation time of 40 min. The floated product under the optimum conditions was determined by HPLC. In the process of HPLC analysis, an Eclipse XDB-C18 reversed-phase chromatographic column (5 μm, 150 mm × 4.6 mm) was used, and mobile phase consisted of water and methanol using gradient elution, and the flow rate was 1.00 ml/min. The proposed method was applied to determine the scoparone in artemisia capillaris Thunb; the recoveries ranged from 92.31 to 99.97 %; the RSD value for 5 replicate measurements of the sample was 3.20 %; and the limit of detection (LOD) was 8.36 ng/ml and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 27.88 ng/ml.

Key words: Solvent sublation, liquid chromatography, scoparone, artemisia capillaris Thunb