Preparative separation of flavanones and terpenoids from olibanum by high-speed counter-current chromatography

Abstract

Seven compounds, including two flavanones, dihydrokaempferol (1) and naringenin (2), and five terpenoids, boscartol A (3), 3,7-dioxo-tirucalla-8,24-dien-21-oic acid (4), 3α-acetoxyl-7-oxo-tirucalla-8,24-dien-21-oic acid (5), 11-keto-β-boswellic acid (6), and acetyl-11-keto-boswellic acid (7), have been purified by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) from olibanum. For the separation, from 250 mg of the crude extract, 3.1 mg of 1 (95.2% purity), 2.7 mg of 2 (96.1% purity), 9.1 mg of 3 (96.7% purity), 4.5 mg of 4 (95.3% purity), 5.4 mg of 5 (96.3% purity), 48.1 mg of 6 (96.8% purity), and 45.5 mg of 7 (98.1% purity) were obtained by HSCCC with petroleum ether–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (1:0.8:1.1:0.6, v/v). The structures of these seven compounds were elucidated by a combination of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI–MS) and extensive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic.