Pharmacognostic Study of Crude Drugs Containing Coumarins and their Derivatives. III

Chromatographic Separation and Determination of Umbelliferone and its Homologues

Abstract

A method was established whereby coumarin compounds in crude drugs or other material could be determined colorimetrically by cleavage of the lactone ring in coumarins with alkali and coloration with the Emerson reagent. The present method can be applied with simple procedure to the determination of coumarin derivatives having no substituent in the position para to the phenolic hydroxyl formed by the cleave of lactone ring.
Free umbelliferone contained in the gum-resins, asafetida, galbanum, and ammoniac, was separated by paper partition chromatography (Figs. 5 and 6), area with spots appearing on the papergram under ultraviolet ray was cut out, and extracted with ethanol. This ethanolic extract was submitted to colorimetric determination by the above method, using the Beckman Model DU spectrophotometer (Tables IV and VI). Free umbelliferone was detected in asafetida, in approximately the same amount as that in galbanum, although the presence of the free form had been denied. The presence of ferulic acid was detected only in asafetida.