Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 20, 2026

A Direct, Early Stage Guanidinylation Protocol for the Synthesis of Complex Aminoguanidine-containing Natural Products
Published on: September 9, 2016
Preparative separation of quaternary ammonium alkaloids from Coptis chinensis Franch by pH-zone-refining
Changlei Sun1, Jia Li2, Xiao Wang3
1Shandong Analysis and Test Center, Shandong Academy of Sciences, 19 Keyuan Street, Jinan, Shandong 250014, China; College of Pharmacy, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 4655 Daxue Street, Jinan, Shandong 250355, China.
Abstract:
pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography was successfully applied to the preparative separation of five quaternary ammonium alkaloids from the crude extract of Coptis chinensis Franch. The separation was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of chloroform-methanol-water (4:3:3, v/v), where the upper aqueous stationary phase was added with 60mM of hydrochloric acid and the lower organic mobile phase with 5mM of triethylamine. From 1.0 g of crude extract, 5.4 mg of columbamine at 96.6% purity, 6.1mg of jateorhizine at 98.8% purity, 58.3mg of coptisine at 99.5% purity, 25.6 mg of palmatine at 98.4% purity and 503.9 mg of berberine at 99.5% purity were obtained. The purities of the isolated alkaloids were analyzed by HPLC and the chemical structures were identified by electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and (1)H NMR.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Ion-Exchange Chromatography
Extraction: Advanced Methods
Principles Of Column Chromatography
High-Performance Liquid Chromatography: Elution Process
Affinity Chromatography
High-Performance Liquid Chromatography: Introduction
In HPLC, two phases play a critical role in the separation process:

