Effective and Preparative Separation of Bioactive Flavonoids From Gynostemma Pentaphyllum Tea Using Elution-Extrusion Counter-Current Chromatography

Elution-extrusion counter-current chromatography (EECCC) was successfully applied for screen and separation of four flavonoids from Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea, a popular herbal tea extract in China. With the hexane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water 5/6/5/6 (v/v) system, 300 mg of G. pentaphyllum tea extract were fractionated on a 180 mL-capacity preparative hydrodynamic CCC column. Satisfactory separation efficiency was achieved, producing milligram-amounts of quercetin, isorhamnetin, and cirsiliol over 90% pure in one EECCC process. Due to the hydrophilic property, the major flavonoid glycoside, rutin, was co-eluted with the solvent front as a mixture. Therefore, another carefully selected biphasic liquid system composed of ethyl acetate/n-butanol/water (4/1/5, v/v) was employed, yielding 35 mg of rutin with 97.1% purity. Structures of all separated compounds were identified by ESI-MS, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR.