Preparative separation of gambogic acid and its C-2 epimer using recycling high-speed counter-current chromatography.

A recycling counter-current chromatographic system was first set up with a high-speed counter-current chromatography instrument coupled with a column switching valve. This system was first successfully applied to the preparative separation of epimers, gambogic acid and epigambogic acid from Garcinia hanburyi using n-hexane-methanol-water (5:4:1, v/v/v) as the two-phase solvent system. As a result, 28.2 mg gambogic acid and 18.4 mg epigambogic acid were separated from 50 mg of mixture. Their purities were both above 97% as determined by HPLC. The chemical structures were then identified by their (1)H NMR and (13)C NMR spectra.