Effective on-line high-speed shear dispersing emulsifier technique coupled with high-performance countercurrent chromatography method for simultaneous extraction and isolation of carotenoids from Lycium barbarum L. fruits.

An efficient combination strategy based on high-speed shear dispersing emulsifier technique and high-performance countercurrent chromatography was developed for on-line extraction and isolation of carotenoids from the fruits of Lycium barbarum. In this work, the high-speed shear dispersing emulsifier technique has been employed to extract crude extracts using the upper phase of high-performance countercurrent chromatography solvent system composed of n-hexane-dichloromethane-acetonitrile (10:4:6.5, v/v) as the extraction solvent. At the separation stage, the high-performance counter-current chromatography process adopts elution-extrusion mode and the upper phase of the solvent system as stationary phase (reverse-phase mode). As a result, three compounds including zeaxanthin, zeaxanthin monopalmitate, and zeaxanthin dipalmitate with purities of 89, 90, and 93% were successfully obtained in one extraction-separation operation within 120 min. The targeted compounds were analyzed and identified by high-performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy. The results indicated that the present on-line combination method could serve as a simple, rapid, and effective way to achieve weak polar and unstable compounds from natural products.