An Economical Method for Preparative Purification of Five Alkaloids from Coptis Chinensis Franch by High-Speed Counter-Current Chromatography Using Singled Prepared Solvent System by GC

Coptis chinensis Franch, a widely used Traditional Chinese Medicine, shows various kinds of bioactivity. The major active components of the herb are considered to be alkaloids. Thus, preparative separation of these alkaloids is critical important for further pharmacology and mechanism studies. In the paper, five alkaloids from C. chinensis were purified by HSCCC using the solvent system composed of chloro-form-metha- nol-water (2:1:1, v/v/v) single prepared. The content of each solvent in solvent system were determined by gas chromatography (GC), then according the ratios of solvents in each phase to prepare the mobile and stationary phase respectively. And a comparative study was carried out between together preparation and single preparation of the solvent system. The purities and recoveries of all the products were over 98.5% and 92%. However, 134 mL chloroform, 336 mL methanol and 452 mL water were saved when the two phase were singled by GC. Our research showed an economical method for separating alkaloids from C. chinensis by HSCCC using the solvent system single prepared by GC.