2023 Volume 44 Issue 3 Pages 89-94
Aloe species plural (Aloe spp.) is a perennial succulent plant having various pharmacological activities such as laxative, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, etc. Among more than 400 species are known, A. arborescens and A. vera are mainly used in foods and cosmetics. Health food products prepared from Aloe spp. may naturally contain their components at high concentrations, while some of them lack the ingredient display. Aloe components are bioactive so that a simple separation method for each component is required to prepare at high purity. In the present study, the systematic separation method of the ingredients containing in commercially available crude aloin was developed using countercurrent chromatography based on liquid-liquid partitioning. Aloesin and aloenin were separated using an organic-aqueous two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate/1-butanol/water (3 : 2 : 5, v/v) with the lower mobile phase. And then, after collected and concentrated the upper stationary phase, aloe-emodin and other anthraquinones containing barbaloin and isobarbaloin were next separated using n-hexane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water (7 : 3 : 7 : 3, v/v) with the lower mobile phase. Furthermore, barbaloin and isobarbaloin were successfully separated using ethyl acetate/1-butanol/water (45 : 5 : 50, v/v) with the lower mobile phase. The overall results suggest that five components can be systematically separated from crude aloin at high purity using a simple preparation procedure with countercurrent chromatography by selecting suitable two-phase solvent systems.
