Application of Centrifugal Partition Chromatography to Tannins and Related Polyphenols

Abstract
Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) has been applied to the separation and purification of bioactive polyphenols in extracts from an oriental crude drug, licorice, and also of oligomeric hydrolyzable tannins extracted from Heterocentron roseum. A tannin-like component, licochalcone B from Sinkiang licorice was separated from another component of related structure, licochalcone A, by normal-phase CPC using a solvent system, CHCl3-MeOH-H2O. A labile trimeric hydrolyzable tannin, nobotanin J which is readily hydrolyzed to a monomer and dimer(s) on a solid support upon gel-column chromatography, and a highly polar tetramer, nobotanin K were efficiently purified in the normal-phase and reversed-phase development, respectively.