Preparative isolation and purification of iridoid glycosides from Fructus Corni by high-speed countercurrent chromatography.

Using a two-phase solvent system composed of dichloromethane-methanol-n-butanol-water-acetic acid (5:5:3:4:0.1, v/v/v/v/v), high-speed countercurrent chromatography was successfully performed for isolation and purification of three iridoid glycosides from Fructus Corni for the first time. From 100 mg of a crude extract of Fructus Corni 7.9 mg of sweroside, 13.1 mg of morroniside, and 10.2 mg of loganin were obtained in less than 3 h with purities of 92.3, 96.3 and 94.2%, respectively. These target compounds were identified by ESI-MS, 1H NMR and 13C NMR.