Development of a general separation strategy by countercurrent chromatography using sanshools from Zanthoxylum bungeanum oleoresin as a case study

Abstract

Three kinds of sanshools were separated from Zanthoxylum bungeanum oleoresin by high‐speed countercurrent chromatography. Sanshools are a series of amide compounds extracted from the Zanthoxylum bungeanum. Due to similar structures, polarities, and dissociation constants, it was challenging to select an appropriate solvent system for their complete separation by countercurrent chromatography. To address this challenge, a solvent‐system‐selection strategy was proposed to identify a relatively suitable solvent system. Additionally, a separation procedure incorporating multi‐elution modes selection was established to separate similar compounds in a logical order. Ultimately, a solvent system comprising n‐hexane:ethyl acetate:methanol:water in a ratio of 19:1:1:5.67 was selected. Three amide compounds with high purity were obtained through the use of recycling elution mode to improve separation resolution: hydroxy‐ε‐sanshool (8.4 mg; purity: 90.64%), hydroxy‐α‐sanshool (326.4 mg; purity: 98.96%), and hydroxy‐β‐sanshool (71.8 mg; purity: 98.26%) were obtained from 600 mg sanshool crude extract. The summarized solvent‐system‐selection strategy and separation procedure incorporating multi‐elution modes may instruct countercurrent chromatography users, particularly novices, seeking to separate compounds with highly similar chemical properties.

Rapid purification of alkylamides from Zanthoxylum bungeanum by medium-pressure liquid chromatography and the establishment of a numbness prediction model using an electronic tongue

“…Wang et al 23 used high-speed counter-current chromatography to fractionate typical prickly ash amides, but obtained only a mixture of alkylamides. A recent study by Han et al 24 utilized high-speed counter-current chromatography to obtain three high-purity amide compounds, but multiple cycles of elution were required to improve the separation resolution, resulting in a procedure with cumbersome steps that was also time-consuming and had high solvent consumption. Compared with the above-mentioned methods, our method has the advantages of simplicity, efficiency, high throughput, and good economy.…”

Rapid classification and identification of chemical components in three different Zanthoxylum species by ultra‐high‐performance‐liquid chromatography quadrupole‐orbitrap‐mass spectrometry

“…Amide alkaloids were unique components of Zanthoxylum, which had been identified in SZB, WZB, and ZS. Amide alkaloids usually have two or more conjugated double bonds, are highly unsaturated, and pungently tasted [28]. Compound 26 in Table 1, with a retention time of + .…”