Methods of purifying and identifying the presence of and levels of procyanidin oligomeric compounds

摘要

The invention provides methods of purifying and quantifying procyanidin oligomers from cocoa-containing sources. The methods advantageously provide ways to isolate commercially useful quantities of a range of procyanidin oligomers.

主权项

1. A method of purifying at least one, individual procyanidin oligomer DP4 to DP12 from a cocoa-containing or cocoa-derived sample by liquid-liquid partition chromatography, the method comprising
defatting the cocoa sample; selecting a solvent system of a mobile phase lipophillic solvent, a bridging solvent of one or more alcohols (C1 to C4), and water or aqueous solvent having a pH between about pH 6 and about pH 3, wherein the stationary phase can be selected as either the lipophilic solvent or water or aqueous solvent, and the mobile phase is selected as the other; mixing the cocoa sample with the mobile and stationary phase solvents; filling with stationary phase a rotor of a CPC apparatus having multiple interconnected mixing chambers within it, each mixing chamber containing the stationary phase solvent, and allowing the mixture of the cocoa-containing sample to be introduced into the rotor mixing chambers at one end; spinning the rotor to allow the cocoa-containing sample to flow through multiple mixing chambers with the mobile phase solvent and to separate oligomers by degree of polymerization; and collecting the at least one procyanidin oligomer DP4 to DP12.