Preparative isolation and purification of alkaloids from the Chinese medicinal herb Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth by high-speed counter-current chromatography

High-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water system (5:5:7:5, v/v) was applied to the isolation and purification of alkaloids from the Chinese medicinal plant Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. Five kinds of alkaloids were obtained and yielded 28 mg of evodiamine (I), 19 mg of rutaecarpine (II), 21 mg of evocarpine (III), 16 mg of 1-methy-2-[(6Z,9Z)]-6,9-pentadecadienyl-4-(1H)-quinolone (IV), 12 mg of 1-methyl-2-dodecyl-4-(1H)-quinolone (V) from 180 mg of crude extract in a one-step separation, with the purity of 98.7%, 98.4%, 96.9%, 98.0%, 97.2%, respectively, as determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The structures of these compounds were identified by 1H NMR and 13C NMR.