Preparative isolation and purification of alkaloids from the Chinese medicinal herb Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth by high-speed counter-current chromatography

Abstract

High-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water system (5:5:7:5, v/v) was applied to the isolation and purification of alkaloids from the Chinese medicinal plant Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. Five kinds of alkaloids were obtained and yielded 28 mg of evodiamine ( I), 19 mg of rutaecarpine ( II), 21 mg of evocarpine ( III), 16 mg of 1-methy-2-[(6 Z,9 Z)]-6,9-pentadecadienyl-4-(1 H)-quinolone ( IV), 12 mg of 1-methyl-2-dodecyl-4-(1 H)-quinolone ( V) from 180 mg of crude extract in a one-step separation, with the purity of 98.7%, 98.4%, 96.9%, 98.0%, 97.2%, respectively, as determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The structures of these compounds were identified by 1H NMR and 13C NMR.