The invention relates to a method for extracting and separating
labdane diterpenes from Himalayan mayapple fruit and application thereof. The method effectively solves problems of extraction of
labdane diterpenes from Himalayan mayapple fruit, purity determination and application of the
labdane diterpenes in preparing drugs for resisting mammary
cancer and
liver cancer. The method comprises the following steps: extracting Himalayan mayapple fruit with
ethanol, suspending the
ethanol extract in
distilled water, extracting sequentially with
petroleum ether and
dichloromethane, passing the
dichloromethane extraction part through a
silica gel column, eluting with
petroleum ether-
acetone, collecting 215 fractions, and merging the 1st-50th fractions, 51st-134th fractions, 135th-178th fractions and 179th-215th fractions to obtain components Fr.1-Fr.4; passing the component Fr.4 through a
Sephadex LH-20 column, eluting with
methanol, collecting 22 fractions, and merging the 1st-4th fractions and 5th-22nd fractions to obtain sub-components Fr.4-1 and Fr.4-2; and carrying out open ODS (octadecylsilyl)
column chromatography on the sub-component Fr.4-2, eluting with
methanol-water, collecting 45 fractions, carrying out detection and analysis by
silica gel thin-layer
chromatography, and respectively merging the fractions containing labda-7, 13-
diene-3, 15-
diol (I) and 14,15-dinor-3beta-hydroxy-7-labden-13-one (II). The method is stable and reliable, is easy to operate, and can be effectively used for preparing drugs for resisting mammary
cancer and
liver cancer.