Preparation,Identification and Purification of Apigenin

Apigenin possesses many bioactivities such as antitumor and antihypertension,which can be widely used in functional food and medicine. Apigenin was used to be prepared from Matricaria recutita and Apium graveolens. Their low contents of apigenin led the low yield and high cost of apigenin,which limited the extensive application of apigenin. Adinandra nitida is a special plant in China,whose leaves is rich in flavonoids with apigenin as aglycone. The preparation of apigenin from Adinandra nitida leaves was studied. The water extract of Adinandra nitida leaves was heated and hydrolyzed with sulfuric acid. The main component of the obtained precipitate was identified as apigenin by UV,IR,ESI-MS and NMR. And the content of apigenin in the precipitate was determined as 64.80% by HPLC. The solubility of apigenin in the ethanol with different temperatures and concentrations was measured,and the constant temperature-concentration gradient technology was developed to purify apigenin. The purity of apigenin reached 92.44%。