Natural products have played a major role in the development of medicine and remain the major source of new pharmaceutical lead compounds. Antrodia camphorata (Niu-Chang-Chih or Zhan-Ku), Polyporaceae, is a medicinal mushroom that has been used in Taiwan folk medicine for protection of diverse health-related conditions. In an effort to translate this eastern medicine into western-accepted therapy, a great deal of work has been carried out on A.camphorata crude extracts, however, little is known about the target compounds and their quantitative availability. This study results the isolation of twenty two secondary metabolites from fruiting bodies of A. camphorata. They were purified through multiple cycles of normal phase chromatography. The structural elucidation of the metabolites include thirteen lanostane-,seven ergostane-type triterpenoids, one sesquiterpenelactone (antrocin), one biphenyl and one fatty acid was enabled by the use of NMR techniques, and the assignment of absolute stereochemistry of antrocin was done using X-ray crystallographic analysis. The majority of the compounds have previously been reported in the literature, although this was the first time,to our knowledge, methyl dehydroeburicoate (104), methyl dehydroeburicoate monoacetate (105), 15α-acetyl dehydro-sulphurenic acid monoacetate (106), methyl dehydrosulphurenic acid (107) were described from A. camphorata. The triterpenoid 106 was reported for the first time from any source, and the spectral data for the compounds 104–107 were reported for the first time in the literature. On the other hand, this study developed, for the first time, separation method reversephase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) for simultaneous determination of 10 characteristic triterpenoids, and a sesquiterpene lactone from A. camphorata. The analytical results showed that this new method was simple, practical, and feasible with good precision,accuracy and repeatability. On the basis of the developed method, this study investigated the quantitative determination of triterpenoids in A. camphorata products. The method developed in this study can provide basic information about terpenoids analysis of A. camphorata, and will contribute to the current literature, allowing more accurate determination of terpenoids.
Natural products have played a major role in the development of medicine and remain the major source of new pharmaceutical lead compounds. Antrodia camphorata (Niu-Chang-Chih or Zhan-Ku), Polyporaceae, is a medicinal mushroom that has been used in Taiwan folk medicine for protection of diverse health-related conditions. In an effort to translate this eastern medicine into western-accepted therapy, a great deal of work has been carried out on A.camphorata crude extracts, however, little is known about the target compounds and their quantitative availability. This study results the isolation of twenty two secondary metabolites from fruiting bodies of A. camphorata. They were purified through multiple cycles of normal phase chromatography. The structural elucidation of the metabolites include thirteen lanostane-,seven ergostane-type triterpenoids, one sesquiterpenelactone (antrocin), one biphenyl and one fatty acid was enabled by the use of NMR techniques, and the assignment of absolute stereochemistry of antrocin was done using X-ray crystallographic analysis. The majority of the compounds have previously been reported in the literature, although this was the first time,to our knowledge, methyl dehydroeburicoate (104), methyl dehydroeburicoate monoacetate (105), 15α-acetyl dehydro-sulphurenic acid monoacetate (106), methyl dehydrosulphurenic acid (107) were described from A. camphorata. The triterpenoid 106 was reported for the first time from any source, and the spectral data for the compounds 104–107 were reported for the first time in the literature. On the other hand, this study developed, for the first time, separation method reversephase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) for simultaneous determination of 10 characteristic triterpenoids, and a sesquiterpene lactone from A. camphorata. The analytical results showed that this new method was simple, practical, and feasible with good precision,accuracy and repeatability. On the basis of the developed method, this study investigated the quantitative determination of triterpenoids in A. camphorata products. The method developed in this study can provide basic information about terpenoids analysis of A. camphorata, and will contribute to the current literature, allowing more accurate determination of terpenoids.