Gradient Elution for Triterpene Separation from Cecropia lyratiloba Miquel by HSCCC

Abstract

The triterpenoid pool from the dichloromethane fraction obtained from the methanolic extract of roots of Cecropia lyratiloba Miquel was submitted to CCC using a gradient elution consisting of Hex/EtOAc/MeOH/H₂O—1/2/X/1 (X=0.5 (A); 0.75 (B); 1.0 (C); 1.5 (D); 2.0 (E)) in five steps. The lower aqueous phase was used as mobile phase, 2 mL/min at 850 rpm. This procedure led to the isolation of tormentic acid and a mixture of tormentic and euscaphic acids. In order to improve the triterpene separation the fractions Fr 31–49 were submitted to a new CCC run using a fine adjustment of the methanol concentration in the gradient elution system. This separation procedure led to the isolation of euscaphic acid, 3‐acetyl tormentic acid and a mixture of tormentic and isoarjunolic acids.

Keywords:

• Cecropia lyratiloba
• Cecropiaceae
• Terpenoids
• Gradient elution
• Countercurrent chromatography

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by CNPq and CAPES, and was carried out at the Núcleo de Pesquisa de Produtos Naturais, Universidade do Brasil. The authors wish to thank Dr. Maria Raquel Figueiredo for collaboration. One of us (G. G. Leitão) is indebted to CNPq and FAPERJ for the opportunity of presenting this paper at CCC2004 in Tokyo, Japan.