Isolation of sutherlandins A, B, C and D from Sutherlandia frutescens (L.) R. Br. by counter-current chromatography using spiral tubing support rotors

Abstract Spiral countercurrent-chromatography has great potential for improving the capacity and efficiency of purification of secondary metabolites, and here we describe applications useful for the isolation of flavonoids from the widely used South African medicinal plant, Sutherlandia frutescens (L.) R. Br . In the spiral tubing support rotor, STS-4 for high-speed counter-current chromatography, several polar butanol aqueous solvent systems were selected using a log  K plot, and the novel flavonol glycosides (sutherlandins A–D) were well separated by the optimized solvent system (ethyl acetate:n-butanol:acetic acid:water; 5:1:0.3:6 by vol.). The yield of purified flavonoids from 0.9 g extract varied from 8.6 mg to 54 mg of the sutherlandins for a total of 85.3 mg. The same extract was fractionated in the new STS-12 rotor of the same outside dimensions but with more radial channels forming 12 loops of the tubing instead of 4. The rotor holds more layers and increased length of tubing. From 0.9 g extract the STS-12 rotor yielded more recovery of 110.4 mg total with amounts varying from 11.2 mg to 64 mg of the sutherlandins and apparent increased separation efficiency as noted by less volume of each fraction peak. Thus from 1-g amounts of extract, good recovery of the flavonoids was achieved in the butanol aqueous solvent system.