Preparative-Scale Separation of Anticancer Triterpenes from Eucalyptus hybrid by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography

Abstract

Centrifugal partition chromatography was successfully applied in the separation of close R _f complex anticancer triterpenes directly from a fraction of Eucalyptus hybrid (Myrtaceae). The experiment was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of hexane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water (1:2:1.5:1 v/v/v) where 2% ammonia solution was added in lower aqueous mobile phase to achieve pH 9.5. From 1.5 g of a fraction, 145 mg of ursolic acid and 72 mg of ursolic acid lactone were obtained in 95.4% and 94.8% purities. The total yield recovery was >94% and the isolated triterpenes were characterized on the basis of their ¹H, ¹³C-NMR, and ESI-MS data.

Keywords:

• centrifugal-partition chromatography
• Eucalyptus hybrid
• preparative chromatography
• ursolic acid
• ursolic acid lactone

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Financial support for this research by CSIR Network project NWP 09 is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank all of our colleagues for their excellent assistance.