Fractionation and isolation of polyphenols from Aronia melanocarpa by countercurrent and membrane chromatography

In the current study, the fractionation and isolation of polyphenols from Aronia melanocarpa has been performed with two different chromatographic techniques on a large scale. On the one hand, the fractionation of polyphenols such as anthocyanins, phenolic acids, quercetin–glycosides and flavanons from A. melanocarpa pomace was done by high-speed countercurrent chromatography and low-speed rotary countercurrent chromatography. On the other hand, the preseparation of A. melanocarpa extracts from pomace and juice in an anthocyanin and a co-pigment fraction was carried out by membrane chromatography after removing the polymeric procyanidins by precipitation with ethanol. Afterward, the separation and isolation of anthocyanins and co-pigments were done by preparative countercurrent chromatography. Purity control and identification of the isolated compounds were made by HPLC–PDA, HPLC–ESI-MS n and 1 H- as well as 13 C-NMR spectroscopy. Various compounds, e.g., chlorogenic acids, isorhamnetin-, apigenin-, luteolin- and taxifolin-derivatives, are described for A. melanocarpa for the first time.