A Rapid High‑performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Simultaneous Estimation of Water‑soluble Vitamin in Ten Wild Edible Plants Consumed by the Tribal People of North‑eastern Region in India

Background: Bauhinia purpurea, Clerodendrum colebrookianum, Dillenia pentagyna, Diplazium esculentum, Houttuynia cordata, Oenanthe linearis, Potentilla lineata, Perilla ocimoides, Sonchus arvensis, and Zanthoxylum acanthopodium are potent wild edible plants and consumed by the tribal people of North‑eastern region in India. Objective: A reversed‑phase high‑performance liquid chromatographic method using photodiode array detector with gradient elution has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitation of several water‑soluble vitamins such as ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), thiamine (Vitamin B1), riboflavin (Vitamin B2), niacin (Vitamin B3), pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5), pyridoxine (Vitamin B6), and folic acid (Vitamin B9) in these ten wild edible plants. Materials and Methods: The chromatographic separation of vitamins was carried out on Acclaim C 18 column (5 µm particle size, 250 mm × 4.6 mm), Dionex Ultimate 3000 liquid chromatograph and detection was carried out at three different wave lengths (210, 245, and 254 nm) using a mobile phase of acetonitrile and aqueous trifluoroacetic acid (0.01% v/v) solution with gradient elution. Conclusion: The results of investigation showed that these plants are rich sources of vitamins, especially the B group of vitamins that can contribute immensely to nutrition, food security, and health and therapeutic benefits. The high percentage of recovery (98%–99%), low coefficient of variation (R2 > 0.99), low limit of detection, and limit of quantitation confirm the suitability of the method for simultaneous quantification of vitamins in these ten plants under investigation.