STUDIES ON THE CHEMICAL-CONSTITUENTS OF XANTHOXYLUM-NITIDUM (ROXB) DC (FAGARA-NITIDA ROXB) .2. EXAMINATION OF THE CHEMICAL-CONSTITUENTS BY MEMBRANE FILTRATION - IDENTIFICATION OF MAGNOFLORINE, A WATER-SOLUBLE QUATERNARY APORPHINE ALKALOID

A membrane filtration, the rejection effectivity of which mainly depends on the pore size of the membrane used, was applied to examination of the chemical constituents of Xanthoxylum nitidum (Rose,) D. C. (Fagara nitida Rose.), Rutaceae. The methanol extracts of the wood and bark sere subjected to gradient filtrations. Each filtrate given by the separation was semiquantitatively analyzed by HPLC. Magnoflorine (9), a phenolic quaternary aporphine alkaloid, was dramatically rejected by the ultrafiltration using a membrane with the pore size of 1000 in spite of its expected permeability through the membrane due to its smaller molecular weight than the pore size of the membrane used. Such clear rejection may be attributable to the phenolic functions in 9 because chelerythrine chloride (4), a quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloid, with a close molecular weight to that of 9, passed through the membrane.