New hyphenated CPC-HPLC-DAD-MS strategy for simultaneous isolation, analysis and identification of phytochemicals

We present here the development of a versatile tool for fast screening and rapid detection of bioactive natural products from plant extracts: the on-line coupling of centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC)-UV to HPLC-UV-MS, via a six position switching valve [1]. This strategy offers the possibility to get instantly HPLC fingerprint of fractions and structural information about separated molecules during the CPC fractionation step. This new approach was applied to the fractionation and purification of xanthones from Garcinia mangostana (Clusiaceae) pericarp. CPC was conducted using the biphasic solvent system heptane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water (2:1:2:1, v/v) and HPLC separation was done with a monolithic column under reversed phase conditions. The combined CPC-HPLC-DAD-MS allows the simultaneous fractionation, detection and characterization of sixteen molecules. Ten molecules of them were identified based on their UV and MS spectra. Furthermore, the methodology has led to isolation of pure α-mangostin and γ-mangostin in a very short time.

[1] J. Chromatogr. A, 1218 (2011), 6173–6178.