Semi-Preparative High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Separation of Potato Glycoalkaloids

A semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed to separate crude mixtures of the potato glycoalkaloids α-chaconine, α-solanine, commersonine and demissine. Milligram quantities of each substance can be obtained within an 8 hour period. A Zorbax semi-preparative NH 2 column and a solvent system of tetrahydrofuran-water-acetonitrile (55:20:25) were employed for the separation. The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min. Glycoalkaloid separations were monitored using both refractive index and ultraviolet detection (215 nm). Further analyses of these glycoalkaloids were done using analytical high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) to check compound purity and identity.