Objective: To establish a high performance capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence (HPCE-LIF) detection method for simultaneous determination of cadmium and copper contents

and apply this proposed HPCE-LIF method for the detection of heavy metal in Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma. Method: After the complexation of Cu2+ and Cd2+ with fluorescein isothiocyanate isomer I-Aminobenzyl ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (FITC-ABEDTA)

with a fused silica capillary (75 μm×60.2 cm

effective length of 50 cm) as the separation channel

the carrier buffer was composed of 0.1 mol·L-1 boric acid-0.1 mol·L-1 SDS (38.5:61.5) with pH adjusted to 9.3.The applied voltage was 25 kV and the capillary temperature was 25 ℃. The detection wavelength was at 520 nm

and the samples were injected into the capillary at a pressure for 5 s. Result: Cd2+ and Cu2+ ions were well separated

and good linearity was found in the range of 1-150

2-200 μg·L-1 for Cu2+ and Cd2+ ions. The RSD of precision was both less than 2.0%; RSD of repeatability was both less than 3.7%

and the average recovery was 100.33% for Cd2+ with RSD of 2.8% and 103.30% for Cu2+ with RSD of 2.5%. Conclusion: Capillary electrophoresis-laser induced fluorescence could be used to detect certain heavy metals in Chinese traditional medicine Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma

and this method could make up for the shortcomings of low content of heavy metal ions and the difficulty in separation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials

and provide a new

convenient

fast and accurate method for detecting heavy metal ions of Chinese medicinal materials. It is believed that after continuous exploration and improvement research

HPCE-LIF can be used to detect more heavy metal ions in traditional Chinese medicine simultaneously.