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The fruits of Arctium lappa L. is an often-used herbal drug in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of common cold caused by wind and heat. This drug contained many constituents, principally arctiin, with arctigenin in smaller amount. In this work, arctiin has been isolated from the fruits of Arctium lappa, and then enzymolyzed into arctigenin. The obtained arctiin and arctigenin were characterized and then used as standards for their determination in the crude drug by HPLC. The method is simple, rapid and accurate.

A new saponin, named smilageninoside, mp 265-7 degrees C, was isolated from rhizomes of Anemarrhena asphdeloides by conventional method. The structure of smilageninoside was identified on the basis of IR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR and FAB-MS. Its structure was smilagenin 3-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1----2)]-beta-D-mannopyranoside.

Six saponins were isolated from the root bark of Aralia chinensis L.. The three saponins I, II and III were identified as araloside A (I), narcissiflorine (II) and oleanolic acid 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-2)-alpha-L- arabinopyranoside (III). Saponin III was found to be a new compound and was named as araloside D.

The main active constituents--osthol and imperatorin were isolated from Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cuss and then used as standards for their determination in the crude drug by fluorometry TLCS. The fructus Cnidii was macerated with ethanol overnight and the ethanolic extract was spotted on a silica gel G-CMC Na plate. The plate was developed with n-hexane-ethyl acetate (7:3). The spot was excited by light of 365 nm, and determined in a Shimadzu CS-930 TLC scanner using a No. 2 filter. The peak areas of the two components were obtained, external standard method was used in the determination. The root, stem, leaf and flower of this plant were shown to contain no osthol and imperatorin, and the seed was found to contain 2.0-3.2% of osthol and 1.8-2.5% of imperatorin.

Two crystalline components I and II were isolated from the total saponin of Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb.) koidz. Crystalline II was identified as kalopanax saponin A and I was named as Kalopanax saponin C and eluciated as 3-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1----2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl]- hedragenin-28-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1----2)- beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1----6)-beta-D-glucopyransyl]ester on the basis of spectral data (13CNMR, 1HNMR, IR and FAB-MS).

Mebendazole displays polymorphism. There are three polymorphic forms (A, B and C) which were identified by means of IR and X-ray diffraction techniques. Procedures have been worked out to determine the amount of the polymorphic form C in pure mebendazole and in tablets. The sample (30 mg) and internal standard (K3Fe(CN)6, 6 mg) were mulled in 0.25 ml of mineral oil and placed between KBr plates separated by a 0.1 mm lead spacer. The spectra were recorded by the absorbance mode between 850-800 cm-1 and 2150-2050 cm-1. Both of the base lines are the horizontal line from 2140 cm-1 peak valley and from 842 cm-1 peak valley. The values of the absorbance difference were measured at 834 and 842 cm-1, 2114 and 2140 cm-1 respectively. The percent content of the polymorphic form C was calculated by the method of internal standard. This analytical approach is simple and the results are satisfactory.

Five constituents were isolated from Aconitum szechenyianum Gay. The structures of these compounds were identified as beta-sitosterol (I), aconitine (II), 3-acetylaconitine (III), songorine (IV) and a new compound whose structure was elucidated to be szechenyine (V) on the basis of UV, IR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR and Mass spectra.