SUPERCRITICAL CARBON-DIOXIDE EXTRACTION AND QUANTIFICATION OF BIOACTIVE NEOLIGNANS FROM MAGNOLIA-VIRGINIANA FLOWERS

Magnolia virginiana L. flowers were extracted sequentially with superc ritical CO2, supercritical CO2 modified with 5 % chloroform, and super critical CO2 modified with 5 % methanol at 40 degrees C and 400 atm. T he biologically active neolignans 3,5'-diallyl-2',4-dihydroxybiphenyl (1), 4,4'-diallyl-2,3'-dihydroxybiphenyl ether (2), 5,5'-diallyl-2,2'- dihydroxybiphenyl (3), and 3,5'-diallyl-2'-hydroxy-4-methoxybiphenyl ( 4) present in these extracts, were quantified by HPLC using photodiode array detection. Compounds 1-4 present in one gram dried flowers were found to be 0.11, 1.16, 1.66, and 0.42 %, respectively. This is the f irst report of the supercritical extraction and quantification of bioa ctive neolignans from Magnolia virginiana L. flowers.