Preparative separation and purification of deoxyschisandrin and gamma-schisandrin from Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill by high-speed counter-current chromatography.

High-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was successfully applied to the preparative separation and purification of deoxyschisandrin and gamma-schisandrin from the crude petroleum ether extracts of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. The optimum solvent system composed of n-hexane-methanol-water (35:30:3, v/v) led to the successful preparation of deoxyschisandrin and gamma-schisandrin. The analysis of HPLC for each peak fraction of preparative HSCCC showed that the purity of deoxyschisandrin (8 mg) was over 98% and gamma-schisandrin (12 mg) was over 96% from 100 mg of the crude petroleum ether extracts in one-step separation.