Separation of dammarane-saponins from notoginseng, root of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H.!Chen, by HSCCC coupled with evaporative light scattering detector

High-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) coupled with evaporative light scattering detection, was applied to the separation of saponins from notoginseng, the main root of Panax. notoginseng (Burk.) F H. Chen. Five individual dammarane saponins have been isolated with the solvent systems composed of CHCl3/MeOH/2-BuOH/H2O (5:6:1:4, v/v/v/v) and EtOAc/1-BuOH/H2O (1:1:2, v/v/v), successively. They were identified as ginsenoside-Rg(1), ginsenoside-Rd, notoginsenoside-R-1, ginsenoside-Re, and ginsenoside-Rb-1, by FAB-MS and C-13 NMR, together with HPLC and TLC analysis.