Isolation of four high‐purity dammarane saponins from extract of Panax notoginseng by centrifugal partition chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detection in one operation

– Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC), as a continuous liquid–liquid partition chromatography with no solid support matrix, combined with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) was employed for systematic separation and purification of weak‐chromophoric saponins from a highly valued and important traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Panax notoginseng . Objective – To separate and isolate high‐purity saponins from extract of Panax notoginseng using CPC‐ELSD with a simple and low toxicity solvent system. Methodology – Samples were preparaed by extracting the root material with acetone, treated with n ‐butanol and then freeze‐dried. CPC‐ELSD was applied in the separation and detection of notoginsenoside and ginsenosides from extract of Panax notoginseng using a solvent system composed of ethyl acetate– n ‐butanol–water (1:1:2, v/v/v). The saponins were analysed and identified by their retention time with high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with ELSD, as well as electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS n ) in the negative and positive ion modes with the authentic standards. Results – A total of 9.6 mg of notoginsenoside R 1 , 67.8 mg of ginsenoside Rg 1 , 2.3 mg of Re and 286.5 mg of Rb 1 were purified from 487.2 mg of n‐ butanol extract of P . notoginseng . The purities of obtained saponins in a single run were assessed to be over 98% by HPLC‐ELSD. Conclusion – CPC‐ELSD was proved to be a very fast and efficient tool for separation of high‐purity dammarane saponins. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.