Isolation of two new coumarin glycosides from Notopterygium forbesii and evaluation of a Chinese crude drug, qiang-huo, the underground parts of N. incisum and N. forbesii, by high-performance liquid chromatography.

From the ether extract of the underground part of Notopterygium forbesii, two new coumarin glycosides, bergaptol-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside and 6'-O-trans-feruloylnodakenin, were isolated along with known compounds including seven furanocoumarins, two dihydrofuranocoumarins, a sterol glucoside and two phenolic compounds. Analysis of their contents by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed that the underground part of N. forbesii contained large amounts of p-hydroxphenethyl anisate (0.7%), bergaptol glucoside (0.2%), nodakenin (2%) and 6'-O-trans-feruloylnodakenin (0.7%) and a lesser amount of notopterol (0.08%), while that of N. incisum contained a large amount of notopterol (1.2%) and less amounts of the others. The characteristic difference in chemical composition between the two species enabled us to identify the respective botanical sources of a Chinese crude drug, Qiang-huo derived from N. incisum and N. forbesii by HPLC.