Hericium erinaceus extracts and analysis of erinacine A

Fresh mycelium of H. erinaceus was extracted with ethanol. The extract was concentrated and fractionated by solvent partition between ethylacetate and water. The ethylacetate fraction was subjected to silica gel column chromatography using n-Hexane–ethylacetate as the eluent. The Hexane–acetone eluate was subjected to silica gel column chromatography according to the previous study [9, 12, 13]; HPLC analysis of erinacine A was executed according to the previous study with minor modifications. The analytical column used was a COSMOSIL 5C18-AR-II (250 × 4.6 mm; particle size 5 μm, Nacalai USA, Inc., Kyoto, Japan). Separation was performed at 40 °C using two different gradients for the mobile phase, which consisted of two solvents, methanol (A) and 2.0 % acetic acid in water (B). The gradient elution had the following profile: 0–20 min, 60–90 % (A); 20–25 min, 90 % (A). The retention time of erinacine A was approximately ~17 min at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min with a scanning UV wavelength at 340 nm. The 3 mg/g erinacine A in the H. erinaceus extracted with 85 % ethanol was confirmed and quantified by HPLC as shown in Fig. 1 [12, 13]. Chemical compounds studied in this article Erinacine A (PubChem CID: 10410568).

Simplistic flow chart of neuroprotective activities of Hericium erinaceus mycelium (HEM) in a MPTP treated animal model