Purification of Z-Ligustilide by AgNO₃-Impregnated Silica Gel

OBJECTIVE To investigate the application of AgNO3-impregnated silica gel in a format of column chromatography for the isolation and purification of Z-ligustilide from the essential oil of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.. METHODS AgNO₃(2%) was impregnated to the common silica gel to generate a new column chromatographic media. The essential oil was eluted with the mobile phase (petroleum ether: acetoacetate=98.5∶1.5), and detected by TLC and UV-Vis spectrometer. The product Z-ligustilide was characterized by GC-MS and HPLC techniques. RESULTS Z-Ligustilide with the purity of 98.87% was effectively purified. CONCLUSION The present study describes a method for rapid isolation of highly pure Z-ligustilide at low cost, allowing future scale-up for modern industrial production.