Separation of betacyanins from Iresine herbstii Hook. ex Lindl. leaves by high-speed countercurrent chromatography in a polar solvent system.

Betacyanins, natural plant pigments, from Iresine herbstii Hook. ex Lindl. leaf extract were separated for the first time by high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) in a highly polar solvent system composed of PrOH-ACN-(NH)SO-HO (1.0:0.5:1.2:1.0; v/v/v/v) in the tail-to-head mode. The flow rate of the mobile phase was 2.0 ml/min and the column rotation speed was 860 rpm. The retention of the stationary phase was 81.0%. For the identification of separated betacyanins in the crude extract and in the HSCCC fractions, as well as for the molecular formulas and multi-step fragmentation pattern elucidation, liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and high-resolution ion-trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry were performed. The innovative application of the HSCCC system for fractionation of the betacyanins present in I. herbstii leaves enabled effective separation as well as preconcentration of the pigments for further low- and high-resolution LC-MS/MS analysis. HSCCC separation enabled identification of 22 betacyanins, of which 18 had not been detected previously in the leaves of I. herbstii, and four of these betacyanins (sinapoyl-gomphrenin and coumaroyl-gomphrenin as well as their epimers) were identified for the first time in the Iresine genus.