Orthogonal test design for optimization of supercritical fluid extraction of daphnoretin, 7-methoxy-daphnoretin and 1,5-diphenyl-1-pentanone from Stellera chamaejasme L. and subsequent isolation by high-speed counter-current chromatography

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of daphnoretin, 7-methoxy-daphnoretin and 1,5-diphenyl-1-pentanone from Stellera chamaejasme L. was performed. An orthogonal L-9 (3)(4) test design was applied to select the optimum extraction parameters including pressure, temperature, modifier and sample particle size on yield using an analytical-scale SFE system. The process was then scaled up by 100 times using a preparative SFE system under the optimized conditions of 25 MPa of pressure, 45 degrees C of temperature, 40-60 mesh of sample particle size and modified CO2 with 20% methanol. The yield of the crude extract from preparative SFE was 2.65%, which contained daphnoretin 25.2%, 7-methoxy-daphnoretin 22.8% and 1,5-diphenyl-1-pentanone 21.1%, respectively. Then the crude extract was successfully isolated and separated by preparative high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (10: 13:13: 10, v/v) by increasing the flow-rate of the mobile phase stepwise from 1.0 to 2.0 ml/min after 90 min. The target compounds isolated and purified by HSCCC were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The separation produced total of 69.2 mg of daphnoretin at 99.2% purity, 63.4 mg of 7-methoxy-daphnoretin at 98.7% purity and 58.3 mg of 1,5-diphenyl-1-pentanone at 98.1% purity from 300 mg of the crude extract in one-step separation. The recoveries of daphnoretin, 7-methoxy-daphnoretin and 1,5-diphenyl-1-pentanone were 90.8, 91.5 and 90.4%, respectively, in HSCCC isolation step and the chemical structure identification was carried out by MS, H-1 NMR and C-13 NMR. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.