Separation and Purification of Z Ligustilide and Senkyunolide A from Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. with Supercritical Fluid Extraction and High‐Speed Counter‐Current Chromatography

Abstract

The essential oil was obtained by supercritical fluid extraction from dried roots of Ligusticum chuanxiong. Different solvent systems for high‐speed counter‐current chromatography (HSCCC) were compared. A system composed of n hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water–acetonitrile in the ratio of 8:2:5:5:3 (v/v) was found to be optimum for HSCCC of the essential oil. Z ligustilide and senkyunolide A were separated by HSCCC with purity of 98% determined by GC. The chemical structures of these two components were identified by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS).