Separation and Purification of Z Ligustilide and Senkyunolide A from<i>Ligusticum chuanxiong</i>Hort. with Supercritical Fluid Extraction and High‐Speed Counter‐Current Chromatography

Abstract

The essential oil was obtained by supercritical fluid extraction from dried roots of Ligusticum chuanxiong. Different solvent systems for high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) were compared. A system composed of n hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water-acetonitrile in the ratio of 8:2:5:5:3 (v/v) was found to be optimum for HSCCC of the essential oil. Z ligustilide and senkyunolide A were separated by HSCCC with purity of 98% determined by GC. The chemical structures of these two components were identified by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS).