Continuous separation of maslinic and oleanolic acids from olive pulp by high-speed countercurrent chromatography with elution-extrusion mode.

Abstract

In this work, a continuous high-speed countercurrent chromatography method has been developed on the basis of elution-extrusion mode and this method was successfully applied to the separation of maslinic and oleanolic acid from the extract of olive pulp. In the process of 'elution', the sample solution was continuously loaded into the column and the maslinic acid was steadilyeluted out in this step while highly retained oleanlic acid always stayed in the column. In the process of 'extrusion', the oleanlic acid was pushed out of the column with the stationary phase. In this way, we achieved a large sample loading. A total of 120mL sample solution (about 89.55% of the column volume) which contains 600mg olive pulp extract was pumped in the apparatus by a constant-flow pump and the maslinic and oleanolic acids were largely separated within 120min. Both of these two compounds presented high yields and high purities (271.6mg for maslinic acid with 86.7% and 83.9mg oleanolic acids with 83.4%).