PREPARATIVE SEPARATION OF TERTIARY ALKALOIDS FROM CORYDALIS YANHUSUO W. T. WANG BY pH-ZONE-REFINING COUNTER-CURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY

Abstract

Preparative separation of alkaloids from the crude extract of Corydalis yanhusuo by pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography was successfully performed, The method used a biphasic solvent system composed of methyl-tert-butyl ether-acetonitrile-water (2:2:3, v/v), in which the organic phase containing 10 mM of triethylamine was used as a retainer in the stationary phase, while the aqueous phase containing 5 mM of hydrochloric acid as an eluter was used as the mobile phase. In the present study, 80 mg of glaucine, 41 mg of tetrahydropalmatine, and 67 mg of corydaline were separated from 1.16 g of the crude sample of C. yanhusuo with purity of 91.4%, 84.3%, and 98.2%, respectively. The structures of alkaloids were identified by ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR.

Keywords:

• corydaline
• glaucine
• pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography
• preparative separation
• structural identification
• tetrahydropalmatine

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was financially supported by Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (2008C23062, 2010C33144) and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of P. R. China (Y4100472).