Separation and purification of tanshinone from Salvia miltiorrhiza by combination of silica gel and high-speed counter-current chromatography / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To develop a method for separation and purification of tanshinone from Salvia miltiorrhiza by combination of silica gel and high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). Methods: The crude extract of S. miltiorrhiza was separated by silica gel chromatography and F1 and F2 were obtained. Then, F1 and F2 were separated by HSCCC with a two-phase solvent system composed of petroleum ether-methanol-water (4:3:4:2 and 8:5:8:3), respectively. The lower phase was used as the mobile phase with a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min, while the apparatus rotated at 850 r/min and the eluates were detected at 254 nm. The structures of the target compounds were identified by ESI-MS and NMR. Results: From 80 mg of F1, three compounds with tanshinone I (14 mg), dihydrotanshinone I (22 mg), and tanshinone IIA (26 mg) were obtained. And from 80 mg of F2, dihydrotanshinone (11 mg), trijuganone B (15 mg), and cryptotanshinone (30 mg) were obtained. The purities of these six compounds determined by HPLC were all over 96%, respectively. Conclusion: Combination of silica gel and HSCCC is an efficient method for separation of tanshinone from S. miltiorrhiza.