In this study, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was used to extract essential oil from Acorus tatarinowii Schott under the pressure of 25 MPa and temperature of 35°C. Two (E)- and (Z)-diastereomers of α-asarone and β-asarone were separated and purified by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (1:0.2:1:0.3, v/v). The separation yielded a total of 39 mg of α-asarone and 463 mg of β-asarone from 1.0 g of essential oil in one-step separation with the purity of 98.9 and 99.1%, respectively, as determined by HPLC. The chemical structures of these compounds were identified by EI-MS, (1)H-, and (13)C-NMR.
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