Abstract

The steroid compounds in Rhodiola sachalinensis were determined with adsorption column chromatographic purification and GC/MS. Sterols were extracted by sonication and Soxhlet with ethanol and dichloromethane, respectively. The extract was partitioned with chloroform and water using liquid-liquid extraction, and purified with a silica column after the sterols had been converted to the corresponding silyl derivatives with BSTFA. Eighteen free sterols, including β-sitosterol, stigmasterol and cycloartenol, and nine sterol conjugates were found from Rhodiola sachalinensis by GC/MS. Among them, cholest-5-ene-3-ol, cholesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol were confirmed and quantified with sterol standards. Most sterols were presented in the chloroform part, with C29 being the most abundant group in this sterol group. β-sitosterol was the most abundant compound with a relative content of 45.94% followed by ergost-7-ene-3-ol (11.33%), 4,14-dimethyl-ergosta-8,24(28)-diene-3-ol (7.07%), stigmasterol (6.09%), cycloartenol (5.43%) and 4-methyl-cholest-5-ene-3-ol (5.39%).