ISOLATION AND PURIFICATION OF PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS FROM MAGNOLIAE OFFICINALIS BY PREPARATIVE HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

A rapid, facile, and economical method to isolate and purify phenolic compounds (honokiol, magnolol, and 4-O-methylhonokiol) from the Chinese traditional herb Magnoliae officinalis was described. The isolation of honokiol, magnolol, and 4-O-methylhonokiol were performed by preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 (300x50mm, 10 mu m) column using mobile phase methanol and 1% (v/v) acetic acid in water (85/15, v/v), at a flow rate of 85mL/min and with a detection wavelength of 294nm. The purified compounds were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR. The technique described in this article is a fast, economical, and highly efficient tool in the large scale isolation of phenolic compounds.