Preparative separation and purification of phenolic compounds from Canarium album L. by macroporous resins

BACKGROUND: Canarium album L. (also called Chinese olive) is a traditional medicine material in China, and phenolic compounds from C. album possess great pharmacological activities. To obtain high‐purity phenolics from C. album, a crude extract of C. album phenolics was prepared by ethanol extraction. The use of macroporous resins for further separation and purification of phenolics in the extract was studied. RESULTS: Through static adsorption and desorption tests, AB‐8 resin was chosen for the separation of phenolics because of its higher adsorption capacity and desorption ratio than other resins. Then, dynamic adsorption and desorption experiments were carried out on an AB‐8 resin packed column to obtain optimal separation parameters. The highest adsorption capacity of AB‐8 was achieved when variables including initial concentration (C₀), feed flow rate and feed volume were 10 mg mL^?1, 2 mL min^?1 and 9 bed volumes (BV), respectively, and saturated resin was first washed with 5 BV of water to remove impurities, then a purified product containing more than 85% of C. album phenolics was obtained by desorbing the resin with 2.5 BV of 70% (v/v) aqueous ethanol at flow rate of 1 mL min^?1, and the recovery of phenolics was up to 75%. In addition, five phenolic compounds in the product were identified as gallic acid, ellagic acid, corilagin, hyperin and kaempferol‐3‐glucopyranoside by UV and LC–ESI–MS analysis. CONCLUSION: The results in this study could provide scientific references for the large‐scale production of phenolics from C. album. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry