Abstract

Following an initial clean-up step on a silica gel column, preparative high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) method was successfully established by using n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (2.3:2:2:1.3, v/v) as the two phases solvent system to isolate and purify terpenoids from the stem and root bark of Celastrus aculeatus Merr. The isolation was done in less than 260 min and 2.5 mg of nimbidiol (I) and 3 mg of pristimerin (I I) were yielded from 250 mg of the crude extract with the purity of 95.0 and 97.1%, respectively, as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Their structures were identified by using spectroscopic methods including ultraviolet (UV), electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI-MS), hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance ¹(HNMR) and ¹³CNMR. Nimbidiol and pristimerin were isolated from C. aculeatus Merr for the first time.

Key words: High-speed counter-current chromatography, terpeniods, nimbidiol, pristimerin,Celastrus aculeatus Merr.