Separation of matrine and oxymatrine from Sophora flavescens extract through cation exchange resin coupled with macroporous absorption resin

A simple method for separation of matrine and oxymatrine from Sophora flavescens was developed with cation exchange resin coupled with macroporous resin. Based on the adsorption characteristics of matrine and oxymatrine, 001×732 cation exchange resin was used to absorb target alkaloids for removing most of the foreign matter, while BS-65 macroporous resin was chosen to purify these alkaloids. The result showed that the equilibrium adsorption data of matrine and oxymatrine on 001×732 resin and BS-65 resin at 30°C was fitted to Langmuir isotherm and Freundlich isotherm, respectively. The contents of matrine and oxymatrine were increased from 0.73% and 2.2% in the crude extract of the root of Sophora flavescens to 67.2% and 66.8% in the final eluent products with the recoveries of 90.3% and 86.9%, respectively.