[Preparation of asiaticoside and madecassoside from the extract of Centella asiatica (L.) Urb using preparative high performance liquid chromatography].

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was successfully used to separate asiaticoside and madecassoside from the extract of Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. The raw material containing 20% asiaticoside and 45% madecassoside was dissolved in methanol and used for the preparation of the pure compounds. The flow rate of the mobile phase, injection volume and detection wavelength were optimized. The optimum operation parameters were then selected as follows: a C18 column (50 mm x 200 mm, 5 microm) with methanol-water (60 : 40, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 100 mL/min, the detection wavelength of 220 nm, and the injection volume of 1.5 mL at the concentration of 40 mg/mL. Asiaticoside and madecassoside the can be obtained in a 20 min runtime, and the purities of the products were detected by melting point, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and HPLC method. The results showed that the purities of products were above 98%. The effective and rapid method has been successfully applied and to the preparation of asiaticoside and madecassoside from Centella asiatica (L. ) Urb.