Preparative isolation and purification of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin from Radix Eupatorii Chinensis by high-speed counter-current chromatography

An efficient method for the isolation and purification of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin from Radix Eupatorii Chinensis by high speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was established in this paper. The ether extracts of Radix Eupatorii Chinensis were purified by HSCCC with a solvent system of hexyl hydride–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (1:2:1:2, v/v/v/v). The upper phase was used as the stationary phase and the lower phase as the mobile phase. About 8.4 mg of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin was obtained from 200 mg of ether extracts from Radix Eupatorii Chinensis in one-step HSCCC separation, with the purity of 96.71%, as determined by HPLC. After methanol–water recrystallization, the purity of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin reached 99.83%. Such a simple and effective method was fairly useful to prepare pure compound as reference substances for related study on Radix Eupatorii Chinensis.