Isolation of Phytochemicals from Salvia plebeia Using Countercurrent Chromatography Coupled with Reversed-phase HPLC

Salvia plebeia R. Br. is a plant which has been used as an edible crop and traditional medicine in Asian countries. In this study, HPLC-PDA analysis and countercurrent chromatography (CCC) coupled with reversed-phase (RP) HPLC method were applied to isolate ten isolates from 3.3 g of n-butanol soluble extract from hot-water extract of S. plebeia. The use of CCC enabled us to efficiently fractionate the starting material with less sample loss and facilitate the isolation of compounds from S. plebeia extract using RP-HPLC. The isolates were determined to be caffeic acid (1), 6-hydroxyluteolin 7-O-β-D-glucoside (2), eudebeiolide B (3), (R)- rosmarinic acid (4), homoplantaginin (5), eudebeiolide D (6), plebeiolide C (7), salpleflavone (8), eupafolin (9) and hispidulin (10) based on the spectroscopic evidence.