СHROMATODENSITOMETRIC STUDY OF THE COMMON LINGONBERRY LEAVES (VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA L.)
The leaves of common lingonberry harvested in the places of its natural growth in the vicinity of the city of Vitebsk of the Republic of Belarus have been analyzed using the chromatodensitometric method. The conditions of the chromatodensitometric method use for determining arbutin in the common lingonberry leaves have been studied. The solvent system, the concentration of the reagent- developer (Gibbs reagent) for the chromatodensitometric method used to determine arbutin in the common lingonberry leaves have been selected. The character of the dependence of the colorimetric characteristics of arbutin spots on its quantity in the chromatographic zone has been studied. A linear dependence of the colorimetric characteristics of arbutin zones on its quantity in the chromatographic zone has been revealed. The chromatodensitometric method of the determination of arbutin in the common lingonberry leaves has been compared to that of HPLC. It has been established that the HPLC results are comparable with those obtained by means of the chromatodensitometric method of determining arbutin in the common lingonberry leaves, which gives grounds to conclude that the chromatodensitometric method is rather accurate and may be used for the quantitative and qualitative determination of arbutin in the common lingonberry leaves. Various conditions for the extraction of arbutin from the leaves of common lingonberry have been studied. The graphs of the dependence of the completeness of the common lingonberry leaves arbutin extraction under various extraction conditions have been constructed. Optimal conditions for the extraction of arbutin have been selected (the degree of crushing the lingonberry leaves - 2 mm, extraction time - 40 minutes, the extractant - water).