Flavonoids were extracted from cranberry powder with acetone and ethyl acetate and subsequently fractionated with Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography. The fraction eluted with a 60% methanol solution was composed primarily of phenolic constituents with maximum absorbance at 340 nm. A high-performance liquid chromatography procedure was developed, which resolved 22 distinct peaks with UV/vis and mass spectra corresponding to flavonol glycoside conjugates. Six new constituents not previously reported in cranberry or in cranberry products were determined through NMR spectroscopy to be myricetin-3-beta-xylopyranoside, quercetin-3-beta-glucoside, quercetin-3-alpha-arabinopyranoside, 3'-methoxyquercetin-3-alpha-xylopyranoside, quercetin-3-O-(6' '-p-coumaroyl)-beta-galactoside, and quercetin-3-O-(6' '-benzoyl)-beta-galactoside. Quercetin-3-O-(6' '-p-coumaroyl)-beta-galactoside and quercetin-3-O-(6' '-benzoyl)-beta-galactoside represent a new class of cranberry flavonol compounds with three conjugated components consisting of a flavonol, sugar, and carboxylic acid (benzoic or hydroxycinnamic acids). This is also the first report identifying quercetin-3-arabinoside in both furanose and pyranose forms in cranberry. Elucidation of specific flavonol glycosides in cranberry is significant since the specificity of the sugar moiety may play a role in the bioavailability of the flavonol glycosides in vivo.

Identification of degradants of pharmaceuticals is a necessary challenge of the drug development process following the subjection of candidate molecules to a variety of physico-chemical stresses. It would be desirable to be able to conduct such studies on a minimal amount of material. As a prototypical study, the isolation and identification of degradants of a sample of the complex indoloquinoline alkaloid, cryptospirolepine, was undertaken after prolonged storage in DMSO solution using a combination of cryogenic NMR probe technology and CASE (Computer-Assisted Structure Elucidation) programs. None of the starting alkaloid remained after storage; a chromatogram of the DMSO solution demonstrated the presence of >25 components in the mixture. The two most abundant degradation products were identified as the known alkaloid cryptolepinone (~35%) and an unprecedented rearrangement product, DP-2, (~16%).

Quantities of material required for structural analysis were reduced substantially following the introduction of 3 mm microinverse and microdual NMR probes in 1992. We now report the first very low-level results obtainable with a new 1.7 mm submicro-inverse-detection gradient or SMIDG NMR probe. Using this technology at 600 MHz, it was possible to fully characterize an 8% impurity contained in a 0. 55 &mgr;mol sample of cryptolepine (1) that had been standing in excess of 2 years since its initial isolation. The impurity was unequivocally identified as cryptolepinone (2) through the concerted interpretation of GHSQC, GHMBC, homonuclear TOCSY, and ROESY spectra in conjunction with APCI LC/MS and CID data acquired from a portion of the serial dilution solution used to prepare the NMR sample. Submicro-inverse-detection gradient probes offer the prospect of reducing still further the quantities of sample required for full characterization under favorable circumstances, making rare and potentially novel natural products amenable to structural determination. SMIDG NMR technology is equally applicable to a range of small samples requiring characterization such as isolated impurities from drug substances, isolates from drug degradation studies, and secondary metabolites.