ISOLATION AND PUNRIFICATION OF PSORALEN AND BERGAPTEN FROM FICUS CARICA L LEAVES BY HIGH-SPEED COUNTERCURRENT CHROMATOGRAPHY.

High-speed countercurrent chromatography was successfully applied for the first time for the separation of psoralen and bergapten from Ficus carica L leaves. The crudeextract obtained by light petroleum (b.p.: 60°C-90°C) from the dried leaves of Ficus carica L. was separated with a two-phase solvent system of n-Hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (1:1:1:1, v/v). Each peak fraction was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The method yielded 4.4 mg of psoralen at 99.1% purity and 2.1 mg of bergapten at 98.2% purity from 400 mg of the crude extract in a single run. The two compounds were identified by (1)H-NMR, (13)C-NMR and MS.