Quick preparative separation of natural naphthopyranones with antioxidant activity by high-speed counter-current chromatography.

The natural naphthopyranones paepalantine [structure: see text], paepalantine-9-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside [structure: see text] and paepalantine-9-O-beta-D-allopyranosyl-(1-->6)-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside [structure: see text] were separated in a preparative scale from the ethanolic extract of the capitula of Paepalanthus bromelioides by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). The solvent system used was composed of water-ethanol-ethyl acetate-hexane (10:4:10:4, v/v/v/v). This technique led to the separation of the three different naphthopyranone glycosides in pure form in approximately 7 hours. Paepalantine showed a good antioxidant activity when assayed by the DPPH radical spectrophotometric assay.