High-pressure liquid chromatographic separation of the naturally occurring toxicants myristicin, related aromatic ethers and falcarinol.

The naturally occurring toxicants myristicin, twelve related aromatic ethers and the toxic acetylenic alcohol, falcarinol, were separated from one another by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The technique employed a microparticulate nitrile phase column and used heptane and tetrahydrofuran as the eluting solvents. Preparative HPLC with 5-micrometer silica allowed isolation of gram quantities of parsleyapiole and dillapiole from extracts of plain parsley seeds and dill seeds, respectively. Commercially available myristicin as well as other aromatic ethers were also purified in gram quantities with the preparative column.