Extraction and characterization of some secondary metabolites of the Chinese drug Qiang-le

Extraction and identification of the organic constituents of the Qiang-Le Specific Cough Relieving Capsules were done. This is claimed to contain the plants Fritillaria spp. and Rhododendron spp. as active ingredients. This study was conducted to verify of the contents of the capsules were indeed coming from natural sources. The chloroform- soluble extracts obtained from the crude ethanolic extracts were fractionated by column chromatography. Chromatographic separation of the chloroform extract gave impure fractions. Hence, GC-MS technique was used to characterize the fractions. Terpenes such as lupeol, lupenone, hinesol and B-eudesmol thujopsene methyl eugenol, along with phthalate, hydrocarbons and fatty acids were identified from the fractions. This study has shown that indeed some of the components of Qiang-Le capsules are from natural products such as plants. Also, some of these identified compounds have been studied to having medicinal effects on cough, acting as expectorants and decongestants