| Abstract: | A large scale isolation and purification of theaflavin (TF) and epigallocatechin (EGC) has been successfully developed by tannase‐mediated biotransformation combining high‐speed countercurrent chromatography. After tannase hydrolysis of a commercially available theaflavins extract (TE), the content of TF and EGC in tannase‐mediated biotransformation product (TBP) achieved approximately 3 times enrichment. SEM studies revealed smooth tannase biotransformation and the possibility of recovery of the tannase. A single 1.5 hours' HSCCC separation for TF and EGC employing a two‐phase solvent system could simultaneously produce 180.8 mg of 97.3% purity TF and 87.5 mg of 97.3% purity EGC. However, a preparative HPLC separation of maximum injection volume containing 120 mg TBP prepared 11.2 mg TF of 94.9% purity and 7.7 mg EGC of 89.9% purity. HSCCC separation demonstrated significant advantages over Prep HPLC in terms of sample loading size, separation time, environmental friendly solvent systems, and the production. |
