Quantitation of chafurosides A and B in tea leaves and isolation of prechafurosides A and B from oolong tea leaves

A procedure was developed for the quantitative determination of chafuroside A, a flavone C-glycoside with potent anti-inflammatory activity, and its regioisomer chafuroside B, as well as isovitexin and vitexin, by selected reaction monitoring liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (SRM LC-MS/MS) analysis. This method was successfully applied to commercial leaves of green tea, houji tea, oolong tea, and black tea. High levels of chafurosides A and B were found in oolong tea leaves that had been heated at >140°C. Next, their precursors, prechafurosides A and B, were isolated from methanol extract of oolong tea leaves prepared from Shizu 7132, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze, by partition with n-butanol and H₂O and chromatography on Diaion SP-825, Sephadex LH-20, and ODS C-18, guided by assay of chafuroside formation. Prechafurosides A and B gave chafurosides A and B, respectively, in good yields when heated at 160°C for 0.5 h. Solvolysis of prechafurosides A and B with pyridine and dioxane quantitatively afforded isovitexin and vitexin, respectively. On the basis of these results and physicochemical data (MS, UV, and NMR), prechafurosides A and B were concluded to be new flavone C-glycoside sulfates, isovitexin2"-sulfate and vitexin-2″-sulfate, respectively.