Purification process of epimedin and icariin from Epimedii Folium by macroporous resin / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the best technological conditions for the purification of epimedin and icariin from Epimedii Folium by macroporous resin, and preliminarily characterize the purification fraction of the best technological conditions. Methods: Five kinds of macroporous resins were screened by static adsorption experiment with the content of epimedin A1, epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C and icariin as indexes. The best purification conditions were optimized by the concentration of upper column solution, the maximum sample volume, the upper column flow rate, the volume of water washing, the concentration of removing impurity ethanol and elution ethanol, the volume of removing impurity ethanol and elution ethanol, the column diameter-height ratio through dynamic adsorption experiment. Finally, UPLC-Q-TOF/MS, HPLC and ultraviolet spectrophotometry were used to characterize the purification fraction of the best technological conditions. Results: The best macroporous resin was AB-8, column diameter-height ratio was 17, 6 BV of upper column solution (crude drug 0.5 g/mL) was used for dynamic adsorption at a flow rate of 6 BV/h, 5 BV of water and 5 BV of 20% ethanol were used for impurity removal, and 6 BV of 50% ethanol was used for elution. The flow rate of impurity removal and elution was 6 BV/h. After purification, the total flavonoids content was 63.29%, the total content of epimedin A1, A, B, C and icariin was 40.48%, the content of epimedin A1, epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C and icariin was 1.63%, 2.52%, 16.36%, 5.51% and 14.46%, respectively. Conclusion: The purification process of epimedin and icariin from Epimedii Folium by AB-8 macroporous resin is stable, reasonable and feasible. The chemical characterization indicated that the purification fraction was mainly flavonoids, mainly consisting of epimedin and icariin. The optimized purification process can be used for the purification and enrichment of such ingredients.