Purification of Ferulic Acid, Senkyunolide I and Senkyunolide H from the Volatile Oil of <i>Rhizoma chuanxiong</i> Using High-Speed Countercurrent Chromatography and Preparative Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A high-speed countercurrent chromatography and preparative liquid chromatography method was successfully applied to the separation and purification of ferulic acid, senkyunolide I and senkyunolide H from the volatile oil of the traditional Chinese medicinal plant Rhizoma Chuanxiong. For the first time, using a two-phase solvent system composed of N-butanol–acetic acid–water (4:1:5, v/v) and a flow rate of 2 mL·min-1, a mixture of SEI and SEH was rapidly obtained by high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC). The mixture was separated by pre-HPLC with a methanol–water (50:50) mobile phase and flow rate of 5 mL·min-1. The purities of the separated components as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography were 93%, and the combination of ESI-MS and NMR analyses confirmed the chemical structures of the three compounds.