SIMPLE AND COST-EFFECTIVE GRAM-SCALE CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHOD FOR THE PURIFICATION OF SOYBEAN PHOSPHOLIPIDS

A method was developed for the preparative fractionation of soybean le cithin to enable the study of the functional properties of pure soybea n phospholipids. Hereby, a coarse and irregularly shaped silica gel wa s used as the stationary phase, whereas the mobile phase consisted of three mixtures of hexane, 2-propanol, and water with increasing polari ty. These solvents were included in a step gradient, which was formed by an isocratic pump connected to a solvent switcher, With this system , two grams of soybean lecithin were fractionated. The purity was eval uated by analytical high-performance liquid chromatography, and the re covery was estimated from concentration determinations by flow injecti on analysis. From these results, it was concluded that 60 to 75% of th e th ree major soybean phospholipids could be recovered with a purity of at least 93%. Only 1.5 L of solvents were needed for both the colum n equilibration and the elution of all soybean phospholipids.