Isolation of Two Sucrose Esters from Polygala tenuifolia by High Speed Countercurrent Chromatography

Abstract

Two sucrose esters, 3,6′‐disinapoyl sucrose and tenuifoliside A were isolated from the n‐butanol extract of the cortexes of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. by high speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) in one or two steps. The two‐phase solvent systems used were composed of chloroform–methanol–water (3:3.5:2 v/v) and ethyl acetate‐n‐butanol‐ethanol‐water (4:0.6:0.6:5). From 300 mg crude fraction, 3,6′‐disinapoyl sucrose (40.1 mg) and tenuifoliside A (8.1 mg) were obtained at above 93% purity by HPLC analyses, and their structures were identified by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and MS spectra.

Keywords:

• High speed countercurrent chromatography
• Polygala tenuiflolia
• 3,6′‐Disinapoyl sucrose
• Tenuifoliside A

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Xiaofeng Ma, Feng Niu, Yuan Zhang, and Hongquan Zhang for their technical assistance in this research.