Isolation and purification of lignans from Schisandra chinensis by combination of silica gel column and high-speed counter-current chromatography

Abstract

Silica gel column combined with high-speed counter-current chromatography separation was successfully applied to the separation of schizandrin (I), angeloylgomisin H (II), gomisin A (III), schisantherin C (IV), deoxyschizandrin (V), γ-schisandrin (VI) and schisandrin C (VII) from the fruits of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baillon. The petroleum ether extracts of the fruits of S. chinensis were pre-separated first on a silica gel column and divided into two fractions as sample 1 and sample 2. 260 mg of sample 1 was separated by HSCCC using petroleum ether-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (10:8:10:8, v/v) as the two-phase solvent system and 18.2 mg of schizandrin, 15.7 mg of angeloylgomisin H, 16.5 mg of gomisin A and 16.7 mg of schisantherin C were obtained. 230 mg of sample 2 was separated using petroleum ether-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (10:0.5:10:1, v/v) as the two-phase solvent system and 19.7 mg of deoxyschizandrin, 23.4 mg of γ-schisandrin and 18.2 mg of schisandrin C were obtained. The purities of the separated compounds were all over 94% as determined by HPLC. The chemical structures of these compounds were confirmed by ESI-MS and 1H NMR. [Acknowledgments. Natural Science Foundation of China (20872083), scientific and technological major special project (2010ZX09401-302-5-12) and the Key Science and Technology Program of Shandong Province (BS2009SW047)]

Keywords

• Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baillon.
• lignans
• high-speed counter-current chromatography