Preparative Isolation and Purification of Two Coumarins from Edgeworthia chrysantha Lindl by High Speed Countercurrent Chromatography

Two bioactive coumarins including 7‐hydroxycoumarin (umbelliferone) and 7‐hydroxyl‐6‐methoxy‐3, 7′‐dicoumarylether (daphnoretin) were separated from the ethyl acetate extract of the stems of Edgeworthia chrysantha Lindl (E. papyrifera) by high speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC). The two‐phase solvent system used was composed of n‐hexane‐ethyl acetate–methanol–water at an optimized volume ratio of 4∶6∶4∶6 (v/v/v/v). Preparative HSCCC yielded, from 317 mg of the crude extract, 21 mg umbelliferone and 41 mg of daphnoretin each, at over 95% purity by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. Their structures were identified by EI‐MS and 1H NMR.