STUDIES On Chemical Constituents Of Ligusticum Chuanxiong And Content Determination Of Multi-marker Compounds

Chuanxiong Rhizoma, the dried rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort, belonging to the Umbelliferae family, is one of the most popular herbal medicines in China. Chuanxiong have the functions of activating qi, promoting blood circulation, expelling wind and alleviating pain, which has high medicinal value. The herb is usually used for the treatment of amenorrhea, hypomenorrhea, irregular menstruation, rheumatism pain and distending pain in hypochondrium. It is preferred drug for the treatment of headache.Phthalides are the important of active compounds in Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. with a phthalide parent nucleus. Phthalides exhibit an equally broad spectrum of bioactivity, including modulation of the central nervous system and cardiac function, protection against brain ischemia, smooth muscle relaxation, inhibition of smooth muscle cell proliferation, anti-platelet aggregation, anti-angina activity. But up to date, it is difficult to attain the reference substance of phthalides. In this study, eight phthalide constituents, a organic acid constituent and a steroid constituent were isolated and purified with column chromatographic methods. The purity of each compound is higher than98%. The spectroscopic methods (1H NMR、13C NMR) were applied to identify their structures as Z-ligustilide, senkyunolide A, senkyunolide H, senkyunolidel,3-butylphthalide,3-butylidene phthalide, Z,Z’-6,6’-7,3’a-diligustilide, Z-6,8’,7,3’-diligustilide, ferulic acid and β-sistosterol respectively.The HPLC-DAD method was built to measure Z-ligustilide, senkyunolide A, senkyunolide H, senkyunolide I,3-butylphthalide,3-butylidenephthalide and ferulic acid in Chuanxiong Rhizoma at the same time. YMC-Pack ODS-A Column (4.6mm×250mm) was adopted; The mobile phase was composed of acetonitrile and0.2%acetic acid aqueous with gradient elution; the flow rate1.0ml/min; column temperature35℃; The detection wavelengths were280、321、313、228nm. Using external standard method to calculate the content of seven kinds of active constituents in the chuanxiong samples. This paper established the method for determinating the content of multi-marker components, it’s simple and accurate with good reproducibility, can be more comprehensive to reflect the quality of chuanxiong and preparations.