Method development using high performance liquid chromatography to assess the effect of eurycoma longifolia on CYP2D6 by using bufuralol as a probe / Sherdila Baizura Kamarul Zaman

Nowadays, the use of Eurycoma longifolia (Tongkat ali) is increasing rapidly. The belief that the herbs' component can treat or prevent disease has encouraged the new generation to trust on the beneficial effects of the active components contained within nature's packages. However,the public are not aware of the possible interactions that might occur when the herbs is taken concomitantly with conventional medicine. Therefore, research is carried out to assess the effect of Eurycoma longifolia on CYP2D6 which is one of the main enzymes in human that is involved in metabolizing drug. This research involves the use of bufuralol as a CYP2D6 substrate. Metabolism of bufuralol is mainly governed by CYP2D6 enzyme and producing its major metabolite which is l-hydroxybufuralol. The study involved the use of HPLC to detect the amount of metabolite; I-hydroxybufuralol produced when Eurycoma longifolia reacts with bufuralol and CYP2D6 enzyme. The best HPLC conditions that is developed by this research involve the use of Luna 5u CN column, mobile phase (70% Ammonium acetate pH 3 and 30% methanol), flow rate of 1 ml/min, temperature of 40°C with fluorescence as detector. After few variables are changed and modified such as the incubation time, type of vial use for incubation, concentration of the CYP2D6 enzyme and other samples of CYP2D6 enzyme, it is found that the major possibility that might prevent the interaction between the drug and the enzyme from occurring is due to the degeneration of CYP2D6 enzyme. Therefore, the effect of Eurycoma longifolia on CYP2D6 cannot be further proceeding and concluded.