Simultaneous enrichment and separation of flavonoids from Herba Epimedii by macroporous resins coupled with preparative chromatographic method.

An efficient, feasible enrichment and separation method of epimedins A, B, C and icariin from Herba Epimedii was developed by the combination of microwave-assisted extraction, macroporous resins and preparative HPLC. WDX-5 macroporous resin shows better recoveries at 96.2%, 97.0%, 98.2% and 97.1% for epimedins A, B, C and icariin than other macroporous resins used in the experiments. As a result, epimedins A (5.1 mg), B (15.3 mg), C (7.6 mg) and icariin (14.3 mg) were obtained from 6.0 g crude Herba Epimedii with the recoveries at 70.8%, 68.9%, 66.7% and 95.3%, respectively. The method developed in this study may provide scientific references for the enrichment and separation of flavonoids from Herba Epimedii.