Isolation of Fucosterol from Pelvetia siliquosa by High-speed Countercurrent Chromatography

We report here the use of high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) in the preparative isolation and purification of the bioactive component, fucosterol, from Pelvetia siliquosa. A crude extract was obtained by ultrasonic extraction of powdered P. siliquosa using methylene chloride and was then subjected to separation and purification by HSCCC, coupled with evaporative light-scattering detection. Preparative HSCCC was performed successfully using a two-phase solvent system, n-heptane:methanol (3:2, v/v), to obtain 10.96 mg fucosterol with 96.8% purity from 50 mg of crude extract; the recovery rate was approximately 90.5%.