RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To develop a method for the preparative separation of gentiopicrin from Radix Gentianae by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The crude alcohol extracts were eluted on a macroporous resin column and then purified by high speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). A two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate: n-butanol: water (2 : 1 : 3) was used, and the lower phase was used as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.5 mL x min(-1), while the apparatus rotated at 800 r x min(-1) and the eluate was detected at 254 nm.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>136 mg gentiopicrin with purity of 99.6% determined by HPLC were obtained from 300 mg crude extraction only in one-step separation and less than 200 minutes.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The established method is simple, high efficiency and suitable for large-scale separation of gentiopicrin.</p>