Isolation of Protoberberine Alkaloids from Stem Bark of Mahonia manipurensis Takeda Using RP-HPLC

Abstract

Mahonia manipurensis Takeda belongs to angiospermic family Berberidaceae. The plant is endemic to the North Eastern region of India in the states of Manipur, Nagaland and part of Indo-Burma region. Earlier works on alkaloid phytochemistry of the genus leads to the isolation and characterization of some quaternary protoberberine alkaloids such as berberine, jatrorrhizine, palmatine, umbellatine, coloumbamine, etc. These alkaloids are found in the root, rhizome, bark and leaves of the plant. In the present investigation, chromatographic techniques such as Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and reverse phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) were used to separate and isolate two different compounds of alkaloid from the crude extract ofMahonia manipurensis stem bark. Comparison of both the chromatographic fingerprints as well as with the spectroscopic data of UV and MS spectra of the two compounds with the standards Berberine chloride and Palmatine chloride hydrate and also with literature data showed that the values of these two compounds are comparable with the standards indicating that the two compounds isolated in this study are identified as these compounds.