Objective: To detect the anti-inflammatory effects of ethanol extracts and dictamnine extracted and isolated from Dictamni Cortex. Method: High performance centrifugal partition chromatography method was used for separation of the essential dictamnine

and anti-inflammatory effects of ethanol extracts and dictamnine were investigated by xylene-induced aruical swelling in mice and the abdominal capillary permeability in mice. Result: Separation was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of hexane ethylacetate-ethanol-water (1∶1∶1∶1). The purity of dictamnine obtained was 98% determined by high performance liquid chromatograph. The results showed that each dosage of ethanol extracts could significantly (P<0.05) suppress the mouse auricle which caused by the xylene swelling (being 44.26%

52.46%

44.26%

respectively)

as compared with the control group. The medium-dosage group of dictamnine could obviously (P<0.01) suppress the mouse auricle but the dosage was not increased significantly in abdominal capillary permeability in mice compared with control group. Conclusion: HPCPC is a recommendable method to prepare and purify the dictamnie with good separation and the method is simple

accurate and easy to operate. The results showed that ethanol extracts and dictamnine showed different anti-inflammatory effect in variety of animal models of anti-inflammatory.