Laurel noble (sweet bay) leaves are widely used for food (aromatic seasoning, preservative) and medicinal (antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective) purposes. The plant is actively cultivated and has many ecological forms. The main sesquiterpene lactones in laurel leaves are costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone. The content of these substances varies significantly depending on the ecological-geographical, climatic, edaphic and other factors. Several methods have been developed and used to quantify these sesquiterpene lactones in laurel leaves. They differ significantly in the cost of equipment and materials required for research, the duration of the analysis, economic costs, and the accuracy of the results. The article presents the results of studying the content of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in the leaves of some forms of sweet bay, cultivated on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula using capillary electrophoresis methods, reliably confirmed by the results of HPLC analysis of the leaves of the studied forms of sweet bay. Studies have shown that both methods give comparable results. At the same time, the HPLC method is characterized by a higher accuracy of results and a lower determination error, and the method of capillary electrophoresis allows a study to be carried out with lower economic costs using simpler methods. Both methods are pharmacopoeial and are recommended for the standardization of medicinal plant materials.

Laurus nobilis L. is an evergreen dioecious, rarely monecious plant up to 12-15 m high. The plant’s name is devoted to an Ancient Greek God of Sun Apollo and is a symbol of peace and victory. It was used in making up wreaths for emperors, generals, and poets. Its natural area includes Mediterranean countries with high level of annual precipitation. It is actively cultivated as a decorative plant in Europe, Russia, USA and other countries. It is cultivated in Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Russia, and Mexico. The aim of the study is the review of available literature about isolation, identification, quantitative determination of biologically active compounds of the Laurus nobilis leaves in the established species and their pharmacological activity. Materialsand methods. The study was carried out using searching (PubMed, CiteSeer, arXiv), library databases (eLibrary, Cyberleninka), and ResearchGate free social network. Results and discussion. We have established that Laurus nobilis leaves have components of essential oil, phenolic compounds, and sesquiterpenic lactones as the principal active substances. Qualitative composition and quantitative content of these compound groups in these raw materials varies depending on the ecological and geographical, edaphic, climatic factors, phase of the plant growth, cultivation technology, drying method etc. The results of the pharmacological studies of the extracts, summary fractions, and individual compounds of Laurus nobilis leaves characterize this type of raw materials as a perspective source for a more profound study. Conclusion. As the available open review data showed, the essential oil components, phenolic compounds (phenolic acids, flavonoids, etc), sesquiterpenic lactones of Laurus nobilis exhibit a diverse spectrum of pharmacological activity. Antimicrobial (widely), anti-virus, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and cytoxic (anticancer) activities, established in extracts, certain fractions, and individual compounds of Laurus leaves compounds are perspective from the point of further studies and development of new treatment and preventive medicinal drugs.

A micellar electrokinetic chromatographic method for quantitative determination of sesquiterpene lactones (costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone) from Laurus nobilis leaves was developed. It was shown that urea had to be added to the leading electrolyte in order to increase the analysis selectivity. The developed method was used to establish the costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone contents in various leaf samples as 0.5757 and 0.0399%, respectively, calculated per absolute dry raw material. The main validation characteristics of the developed method were also determined.

We have developed a methodology of quantitative determination of sesquiterpenic lactones (costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone) in leaves of Laurus nobilis using reversed phase HPLC. We have determined optimal conditions for the substances under study extraction from active parts. Using the developed methods we have established that costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone content in Laurus nobilis samples in terms of absolutely dry active parts is 0.99 and 0.26% correspondingly.

The paper demonstrated the potential of HPLC and capillary electrophoresis when used for the analysis sesquiterpene lactones (costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone) in the leaves of laurel (Laurus nobilis L.). We found that both methods had yielded comparable results as to the content of costunolide and dehydrocostuslactone in all the samples of the studied raw materials.