High-speed countercurrent chromatography as an efficient technique for large separation of plant polyphenols: A review

Polyphenols, which are commonly found in fruits, vegetables, cereals, and legumes, are the most abundant dietary antioxidants. To date, numerous studies have demonstrated the ability of polyphenols to prevent the development of several diseases and established the corresponding structure-activity relationships. However, polyphenol standards are either not commercially available or very expensive, mainly because the structural complexity and diversity of polyphenols complicate their fractionation and isolation from plant extracts by conventional separation techniques. High-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) is based on continuous liquid-liquid partitioning, which enables one to eliminate irreversible adsorption on solid supports. This technique has been extensively used for natural product isolation and is well suited to the effective large-scale separation of polyphenols and their derivatives, achieving high purities and yields of up to several hundred milligrams per run within several hours. The present review briefly introduces briefly HSCCC technology and summarizes its applications in the separation and purification of plant polyphenols, including the recent achievements in the large-scale preparation of proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins by our laboratory.