Isolation of the minor and rare constituents from fruits of Peucedanum alsaticum L. using high-performance counter-current chromatography.

A high-performance counter-current chromatography (HPCCC) method was applied for the first time for the preparative separation and purification of three rare compounds which occur as minor constituents in the fruits of Peucedanum alsaticum L.: 5-substituted coumarin notoptol and two dihydropyranochromones: divaricatol and ledebouriellol. A scale-up process from analytical to preparative in a very short time was developed. In order to purify a range of rare and minor compounds with different polarity two separate experiments were performed, one in reverse phase, the other in normal phase, using the same crude extract. A two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water (1:1:1:1) was developed. The components purified and collected were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The method yielded 0.7 mg of notoptol, 1.46 mg of ledebouriellol at purity of 99.5%, and 10 mg of mixtures of divaricatol, alsaticol and alsaticocoumarin, where divaricatol present 22% by peak area. These amounts were obtained from 1 g of the crude extract in a single run. This is the first time when minor notoptol, ledebouriellol, and divaricatol were isolated in a single run using HPCCC method and first time when these were identified in plant from Peucedanum genus.