Xinjiang Shikonin Chemical Composition Study

The Chinese medicine"zicao"is the dried root of Arnebia euchroma(Royle) Johnst or Arnebia guttata Bunge,It is used in Chinese medicine to remove heat from blood,to promote blood circulation,to counteract toxicity,and to facilitate eruption.It can cure heat in blood,macule and papule purple and black,measles without adequate eruption,sores,eczema,scalded by hot water and fire.Arnebia euchroma(Royle)Johnst has better quality.In the past 90 years,scholars at home and abroad have obtained many bioactive constitutes in root of Arnebia euchroma(Royle)Johnst,such as shikonin derivatives, phenolic and quinonic compounds,phenolic and acidic polysaccarides.these constit-utes exhibited various pharmacological activities,such as antibacteria,antiinflam-mation,an-ticancer,antivirus,contraception and liver protection.To investigate the active ingredients in root of Arnebia euchroma(Royle)Johnst furtherly,we investigated the chemical constituents of root of Arnebia euchroma (Royle)Johnst.Eleven compounds were separated from Arnebia euchroma root petroleum ether extract by the method of silica and sephadex LH-20 gel chromatography column.Nine compounds were elucidated by the spectral analysis and chemical evidence.Their are deoxyshikonin,β,β'-dimethylacryloylshikonin, acetyshikonin,hexacosanyl ferulate,tetracosanoic acid,tetracosyl ester,shikonin,β-sitosterol,propionylshikonin,acetoxyisovalerylshikonin,And hexacosanylferulate, tet-racosanoic acid,tetracosyt ester,propionylshikonin are found from plants of Arnebia Forssk for the first time。At the same time,after coarsely separating Arnebia euchrorna petroleum ether extract by silica gel,we attempt to separate the extract section mainly contained of acetylshikonin and shikonin by a wide range of stationary phase,such as silica gel,corn starch,melamine,activated carbon,Sephadex LH-20 gel.from the data of and the phenomenon in experimental,we find that corn starch,melamine,activated carbon are not suitable for separation of zicao pigment;and the use of silica gel to separte coarsely,sephadex LH-20 gel to finely separate the extract sections of acetylshikonin and shikonin,it can achieve high isolation,less time-consuming,less solvent consumption,more target,it provides a good isolation procedures to get a lot of acetylshikonin and shikonin from the Arnebia euchroma for the future.