Dongyu Gu

Separation and Purification of Flavonoids from Black Currant Leaves by High-Speed Countercurrent Chromatography and Preparative HPLC

High-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) has been successfully used for the preparative isolation of flavonoids from the ethyl acetate extracts of black currant leaves. The HSCCC separation was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane/EtOAc/MeOH/H2O (1:10:1:10, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. When the flow rate was increased from 1.0 to 3.0 mL/min, the retention of stationary phase decreased from 60.3% to 39.7% resulting in a loss of peak resolution, while the stationary phase retention is stable with an increase in sample size from 25 to 200 mg. From 100 mg of the crude sample, HSCCC separation yielded 4.0 mg of kaempferol 3-O-galactoside, 6.0 mg of kaempferol 3-O-glucoside, and 9.0 mg of fraction I containing a mixture of hyperoside and isoquercitrin. Then, from 18 mg of fraction I, 3.0 mg of hyperoside and 11.0 mg isoquercitrin were separated by preparative HPLC by successive sample injection at every 100 min interval. Chemical structures of all these compounds were confirmed by MS and NMR.

APPLICATION OF PREPARATIVE HIGH-SPEED COUNTERCURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR SEPARATION OF ELATINE FROM DELPHINIUM SHAWURENSE

Abstract Preparative separation of elatine in Delphinium shawurense was achieved for the first time using high speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC). The separation was performed with a solvent system composed of ethyl acetate-chloroform-methanol-water (3:0.1:2:3, v/v) using the lower organic phase as a mobile phase under a revolution speed of 800 rpm. This yielded 72 mg of elatine at over 97% purity with an approximately 95% recovery. The chemical structure was identified by MS and NMR.

A LC/QTOF-MS/MS Application to Investigate Chemical Compositions in a Fraction with Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B Inhibitory Activity from Rosa Rugosa Flowers

INTRODUCTION Rosa rugosa flowers used as herbal medicine possess many activities. A fraction extracted by ethyl acetate exhibited strong inhibitive activity against protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) in vitro. OBJECTIVE Establish an efficient method of LC coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) with tandem MS/MS to investigate the compositions in the active fraction. METHODS Chemical compositions were separated and investigated by LC/QTOF-MS/MS in negative electrospray ionisation (ESI) mode at different collision energy (CE) values. The maximal structural information was obtained for the identification of components. RESULTS A total of 75 compounds including tannins, their related compounds and flavonoids were identified or partially characterised according to accurate mass and the characteristic fragments at low and high CE. Meanwhile, the fragmentation pathways of gallotannins and ellagitannins (hexahydroxydiphenoyl group and lactonised valoneoyl group) were studied and proposed and were used to trace tannins in crude extracts. CONCLUSION The results suggest that this fraction is a source of PTP1B inhibitory activity with a potential for treating diabetes.

Comparative Study on Separation and Purification of Isoflavones from the Seeds and Sprouts of Chickpea by High-Speed Countercurrent Chromatography

Abstract Chickpea is known as a plant that is rich in protein, carbohydrates, and nutrition, and its seeds and sprouts have been processed into various health foods. In the present study, four isoflavones were purified from the seeds and sprouts of chickpea by high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) using two biphasic solvent systems composed of n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (5:5:5:5, v/v) and ethyl acetate–water (1:1, v/v). The results indicated that 14.2 mg of formononetin, 15.7 mg of biochanin A, 9.1 mg of ononin, 11.3 mg of biochanin A-7-O-β-D-glucoside were obtained from 150 mg of sprout extracts with the purity of 92.26%, 95.86%, 95.32%, and 96.56%, respectively. Compared with the sprouts, separation of seed extracts yielded less amounts of biochanin A-7-O-β-D-glucoside and biochanin A with lower purity. The results indicate that four main isoflavones in chickpea, i.e., isoflavones, formononetin, biochanin A, ononin, and biochanin A-7-O-β-D-glucoside, are substantially increased by biosynthesis during the seed germination.

Applications of LC-MS in PET radioligand development and metabolic elucidation.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a very sensitive molecular imaging technique that when employed with an appropriate radioligand has the ability to quantititate physiological processes in a non-invasive manner. Since the imaging technique detects all radioactive emissions in the field of view, the presence and biological activity of radiolabeled metabolites must be determined for each radioligand in order to validate the utility of the radiotracer for measuring the desired physiological process. Thus, the identification of metabolic profiles of radiolabeled compounds is an important aspect of design, development, and validation of new radiopharmaceuticals and their applications in drug development and molecular imaging. Metabolite identification for different chemical classes of radiopharmaceuticals allows rational design to minimize the formation and accumulation of metabolites in the target tissue, either through enhanced excretion or minimized metabolism. This review will discuss methods for identifying and quantitating metabolites during the pre-clinical development of radiopharmaceuticals with special emphasis on the application of LC/MS.

Separation and Purification of Phenolic Acids and Myricetin from Black Currant by High-Speed Countercurrent Chromatography

Abstract Black currant is an important material in the food industry, but little research has been reported on the isolation of phenolic acids because of their low content. In the present study, high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) has been successfully used for the preparative isolation of the minor phenolic compounds from the ethyl acetate extracts of black currant fruit. The HSCCC separation was performed with a two phase solvent system composed of n-hexane/EtOAc/MeOH/H2O (5:15:4:7 v/v) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. From a 500 mg crude sample 0.8 mg of protocatechuic acid, 1.0 mg of caffeic acid, 0.5 mg of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 2.5 mg of myricetin were purified by a one step HSCCC operation,. Their chemical structures were confirmed by MS and NMR.

Compact type-I coil planet centrifuge for counter-current chromatography

A compact type-I coil planet centrifuge has been developed for performing counter-current chromatography. It has a revolution radius of 10 cm and a column holder height of 5 cm compared with 37 and 50 cm in the original prototype, respectively. The reduction in the revolution radius and column length permits application of higher revolution speed and more stable balancing of the rotor which leads us to learn more about its performance and the future potential of type-I coil planet centrifuge. The chromatographic performance of this apparatus was evaluated in terms of retention of the stationary phase (S(f)), peak resolution (R(s)), theoretical plate (N) and peak retention time (t(R)). The results of the experiment indicated that increasing the revolution speed slightly improved both the retention of the stationary phase and the peak resolution while the separation time is remarkably shortened to yield an excellent peak resolution at a revolution speed of 800 rpm. With a 12 ml capacity coiled column, DNP-DL-glu, DNP-beta-ala and DNP-l-ala were resolved at R(s) of 2.75 and 2.16 within 90 min at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min. We believe that the compact type-I coil planet centrifuge has a high analytical potential.

NOVEL DESIGN FOR CENTRIFUGAL COUNTERCURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY: IV. FIGURE-8 COLUMN

The toroidal columns using an equilateral triangular core, zigzag, and saw patterns has improved step by step both for retention of the stationary phase and peak resolution of the conventional toroidal coil in centrifugal countercurrent chromatography. To further improve the retention of stationary phase and peak resolution, a novel figure 8 toroidal coil was designed and the performance of the system was evaluated at various flow rates. In the figure-8 column with a capacity of 3 mL, the peak resolution of dipeptides (Val-Tyr and Trp-Tyr) was 1.63, and that of DNP-amino acids (DNP-DL-glu, DNP-β-ala, DNP-L-ala) were 1.92 and 1.85, respectively. The results indicated that retention of stationary phase and peak resolution were improved at lower flow rates. The Rs with lower mobile phase can be further increased by modifying the tubing to form a flat twisted configuration. With a decreased column length with a capacity of about 0.1 mL, resolution of the figure-8 column was 0.71 with about 40% retention of stationary phase at a flow rate of 0.005 mL/min.

SEPARATION OF THE MINOR FLAVONOLS FROM FLOS GOSSYPII BY HIGH-SPEED COUNTERCURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY

An effective high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) method was established for further separation and purification of four minor flavonols in addition to five major flavonols which were reported by our previous study from extracts of Flos gossypii. HSCCC was performed with three two-phase solvent systems composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (7.5:15:6:7, v/v), (2.5:15:2:7, v/v), and (0:1:0:1, v/v). The separation was repeated three times, and 3.8 mg of 8-methoxyl-kaempferol-7-O-β-D-rhamnoside (HPLC purity 98.27%), 6.7 mg of astragalin (HPLC purity 94.18%), 3.3 mg of 4′-methoxyl-quercetin-7-O-β-D-glucoside (HPLC purity 94.30%), and 8.2 mg of hyperoside (HPLC purity 93.48%) were separated from 150 mg of the crude sample. The chemical structures of the flavonols were confirmed by MS, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR. Meanwhile, the results indicated that the target compound with smaller K value (<0.5) can be separated by increasing column length of HSCCC. And, four separation rules of flavonols were established according to the present study and references were summarized, which can be used as a useful guide for separation of flavonols by HSCCC.

Evaluation of the effect of column orientation in type-I high-speed counter-current chromatography.

The performance of type-I high-speed counter-current chromatography was evaluated by changing the column inclination against the rotating centrifugal force field. The separations were performed with two different solvent systems composed of 1-butanol-acetic acid-water (4.75:0.25:5, v/v) (BAW) and hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-0.1 M HCl (1:1:1:1, v/v) (HEMW) using dipeptides and DNP-amino acid as test samples, respectively. A set of short coiled columns connected in series is mounted around the holder hub in two different ways: in the parallel orientation, all column units are arranged in parallel to each other and mounted on the holder at various angles against the horizontal plane. In the zigzag configuration, the neighboring units of the same column are mounted symmetrically forming various angles apart. In the parallel configuration, for both the BAW and HEMW systems, Sf (the retention of stationary phase) first increased as the column angle decreased from 90 degrees to 60 degrees and then decreased, as the column angle further decreased from 60 degrees to 0 degrees, while Rs (peak resolution) continually declined over the entire column angle range from 90 degrees to 0 degrees. But, for both solvent systems, with the zigzag configuration, retention of stationary phase and resolution both decreased as the column angle decreased from 90 degrees to 0 degrees. In general, Sf and Rs for separation of dipeptides in the BAW system, from 90 degrees to 15 degrees, is better for the parallel orientation than for the zigzag configuration. However, at 0 degrees, Sf and Rs are better for the zigzag orientation. In the DNP-amino acid separation with the HEMW system, retention of the stationary phase and Rs for the parallel orientation is better than that for the zigzag orientation from 90 degrees to 30 degrees, whereas from 30 degrees to 0 degrees the results are opposite. Over all results of our studies revealed that the formally used column orientation at 90 degrees inclination yields the highest peak resolution in both solvent systems.