•An online-storage recycling CCC strategy was designed.•Online storage technique was firstly reported for CCC separation.•Sequential recycling elution of multi-fractions was achieved in one-run separation.•Six natural naphthaquinones were isolated by running CCC only once.Counter-current Chromatography (CCC) has gradually become a popular method for preparative separation, especially in natural product isolation. As an effective separation method, one-dimensional (1D) CCC often results in insufficiently resolved peaks, due to limitations in the separation efficiency and peak capacity in an equipment. Therefore, two dimensional (2D)/multi-dimensional (multi-D) CCC strategies with recycling elution mode were developed to achieve successful separation of target compounds. However, the reported 2D or multi-D CCC approaches lead to experimental costs, complicated procedures, higher requirements for equipment, and increased time consumption. In this study, an online-storage recycling (OSR) CCC strategy was designed to achieve sequential recycling elution for multi-fractions of effluent in non-stop separation with single instrument using three 6-port valves and two storage loops, which would be realized by introducing 2D or multi-D CCC method before. In this non-stop separation system, the fraction C of effluent was subjected to recycling separation while the other fractions (A and B) were storing online, following which these two fractions were subjected to subsequent recycling separations in order, after the completion of the previous recycling elution. Then, six natural occurring naphthaquinone analogues, namely, shikonin (1), propionylshikonin (2), deoxyshikonin (3), isobutyrylshikonin (4), β, β-dimethylacrylshikonin (5) and isovalerylshikonin (6), were isolated from the crude extract of Arnebia euchroma in single run. The purities of all compounds were > 95.0% as determined by HPLC, and their structures were determined by means of UV, MS, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and optical rotatory dispersion (ORD).

Two new norlignans, hyperiones A (1) and B (2), three new acylphloroglucinols, aspidinol C (3) and hyperaspidinols A (5) and B (6), the known compound aspidinol D (4), and the symmetrical dimeric xanthone hyperidixanthone (7) were isolated from Hypericum chinense. Their structures were established by spectroscopic analysis. In an antibacterial assay using a panel of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, compounds 3 and 4 exhibited promising activity against the NorA efflux protein overexpressing MDR Staphylococcus aureus strain SA-1199B with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2 μg/mL (8.4 μM) and 4 μg/mL (16.8 μM), respectively. The positive control antibiotic norfloxacin showed activity at MIC 32 μg/mL (100 μM).