Abstract:

A two-dimensional (2-D) preparative liquid chromatography method was developed for the preparation of triterpene saponins from Platycodon grandiflorum using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled with reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). At first, the crude extract was obtained from Platycodon grandiflorum by boiled alcohol precipitation. Then, the concentrated crude extracts were continuously pretreated using solid phase extraction (SPE) under reversed-phase and hydrophilic-phase modes to remove the impurities. Subsequently, XAmide column (150 mm×20 mm, 5 μm) was selected to separate the triterpene saponin constituents under HILIC mode using water and acetonitrile as mobile phases. From 6 min to 25 min, each fraction was collected per minute under time-triggered mode and 20 fractions were collected. The 18th fraction (JG23) was selected for further purification. The column of Atlantis PrepT3 (100 mm×30 mm, 5 μm) was chosen and two monomeric compounds were obtained. The two compounds with over 90% purity were identified as deapi-platycoside E and platycoside E with mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This 2-D HILIC-RPLC method with high orthogonality can be used in the preparation of triterpene saponins from natural products.

Key words: Platycodon grandiflorum, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), preparation, reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), triterpene saponin