Shilajit has a longstanding use as an anti-aging and memory enhancing drug. It is known to have excellent anti-bacterial effects and is believed to be effective for cognitive enhancement, but is difficult to standardize because of the lack of quality control standards. This study, for the first time, proposes a quality control standard using a simultaneous analytical method for the drug’s multi-compound content using high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) as an aid for the internationalization of Mongolian Shilajit. Phenolic compounds 1-6 were isolated from Mongolian Shilajit extract using bioassay-guided isolation, and the isolated compounds were evaluated for cognitive-related anti-Alzheimer’s disease (AD) activities using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), β-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1), and advanced glycation end-product (AGE) formation assays. The isolated compounds showed good effects for each activity. In addition, the isolated compounds were successfully quantified using a validated quantitative HPLC analysis method. As a result, the isolated compounds were suggested as standard marker compounds for Mongolian Shilajit. Also, we proved that the original material of Mongolian Shilajit is a lichen named Xanthoparmelia somloensis (Gyel.) Hale using HPLC-UV, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/hybrid linear trap-quadruple-orbitrap-high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI/LTQ-HRMS).
Simultaneous quantification of six alkaloid components from commercial stemonae radix by solid phase extraction-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detector
