Investigation Of Phenolic Constituents In Echinacea Purpurea Grown In China

Echinacea belongs to Echinacea genus of composite family, is a North American native medicinal herb. Of the several varieties of Echinacea with varying appearances, the most popular are E. purpurea, E. angustifolia and E. pallida. In 1970s, it was introduced in China as a ornamental plant. In 1990s, with the movement of "back to nature" comes into its own in the world, the medicinal Value of Echinacea has been gradually recognized by people. The study of Echinacea are gradually growing in the world. Nowadays, Echinacea is grown successfully in a number of places in China, and has been used as a crude drug. A type of important pharmaceutical active constituents of Echinacea is caffeic acid derivatives. Echinacea is best known for its immunomodulatory function, anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activities, and also proven to offer other health benefits.The studies in this thesis are summarized as follows:1. This paper has reviewed the plant species, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, analysis methods, recent research progress, and application of Echinacea.2. Studying on isolation and purification of cichoric acid from extracts of E. Purpurea by polyamide column chromatography, combined HPLC-PAD. The technology was simple and could be applied to pre-purification of cichoric acid from the extracts of E. purpurea.3. The procedure to analyze caffeic acid derivatives with HPLC-ESI-MS was set up. The contents of caffeic acid derivatives in introducd plant of E. purpurea in China were assayed by HPLC-ESI-MS. Results show that there are caffeic acid derivatives in every part of E. purpurea, the content of the caffeic acid derivatives in the stems is the lowest and that in leaves and flowers are highest.4. The contents of caffeic acid derivatives and total phenolics in aerial parts and roots of E. purpurea grown in China were investigated by HPLC-ESI-MS and colorimetric analysis. Effects of different drying methods on the components were also studied. The results show that the content of caffeic acid derivatives in E. purpurea reached its highest in the middle stage of full blossoming. The content of caffeic acid derivatives in fresh raw material was generally higher than that in dried raw material. There was no significant difference in the content of caffeic acid derivatives among three geographical populations of E. purpurea. Furthermore, the developmental pattern of total phenolics in the E. purpurea was the same as that of caffeic acid derivatives.