Application of high-speed counter current chromatography in extraction and separation of alkaloids in natural products / 中国中药杂志

Alkaloids, widespread in plants, have a series of pharmacological activities and have been widely used to treat various diseases. Because alkaloids are usually presented in multicomponent mixtures and are deeply low in content, they are very difficult to extract and separate by traditional methods. High-speed counter current chromatography(HSCCC) is a kind of liquid-liquid chromatography without solid support phase, which has the advantages of large injection volume, low cost, and no irreversible adsorption. Compared with the traditional methods of extraction and separation of alkaloids, HSCCC can ensure the separation of many different alkaloids at one time, with a high recovery and large amount. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of HSCCC compared with traditional separation methods were discussed and the solvent system and elution mode of HSCCC used to separate alkaloids in recent years were summarized by referring to the relevant literature to provide some references for the separation of alkaloids by HSCCC.

Pharmacognostic Studies and Chromatographic Analysis of the Gum of Anacardium occidentale L (Anacardiaceae).

Microscopy of the gum revealed various shapes and sizes which disintegrated within a short time (3-5 minutes). They have thick walls, somewhat cracked and striated and also seen as translucent masses. Some were observed to have open fissures. However, the purified ones obtained from the precipitates depicted no open fissures, striations or cracks. Macroscopy revealed that A.occidentale gum has irregular shapes, tasteless, odourless, very coarse texture for the crude to fine coarse for the purified gum. It is yellowish brown colour for the crude to whitish milk for the purified gum. On the other hand, the gum arabic has a bland mucilaginous taste, odourless, varying shapes and sizes with a milky colour. This shows that the plant gum has features similar to available pharmaceutical gums and as such a viable pharmaceutical material and also these features are useful for the preparation of monograph of the plant. Paper and Thin Layer Chromatographic analyses of the carbohydrates in both the gums revealed the presence of sugars such as xylose, arabinose, galactose and glucose. Butanol-Acetic acid- Water (BAW) 4:1:5; Butanol-Ethanol-Water (BEW) 4:1:2.2; and Butanol-Acetic acid-Ether-Water (BAEW) 9:6:3:1 were used as solvents systems by ascending technique and sprayed with Aniline phthalate for visualization.