ISOLATION AND PURIFICATION OF FOUR BIOACTIVE CONSTITUENTS FROM Alpinia officinarum HANCE UTILIZING HIGH-SPEED COUNTER-CURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY

Abstract

Galangal, the rhizome of Alpinia officinarum Hance (Chinese pinyin name: Gao-liang-jiang), is one of the most popular Chinese herbs that has extensive pharmacological effects. In this study, a high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) method has been used for the first time to separate key bioactive chemical constituents from galangal. Four compounds including 5 R-hydroxy-7-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-3-heptanone, kaempferol-4′-methylether, galangin, and 7-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-4E-en-3-heptanone were obtained from the chloroform extract of galangal using HSCCC. Their structures were identified by ESI-MS, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR. The study showed the value of orthogonal selectivity in liquid–liquid chromatography with references to an example of superior resolution in preparative HSCCC as compared to analytical HPLC, where it baseline-resolved two components that co-eluted with analytical reverse phase HPLC assay. The study also showed examples of the considerable resolution choices offered by different biphasic solvent systems.

Keywords:

• Alpinia officinarum hance
• diarylheptanoid
• flavonoid
• galangal
• Gao-liang-jiang
• high-speed counter-current chromatography

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This study was funded in part by Projects of International Cooperation Program, Guangdong Province (2008A050200005) and Projects of International Cooperation Program, the Ministry of Science and Technology of P. R. China (2009DFA31230).