Preparative separation of curcuminoids from crude curcumin and turmeric powder by pH-zone-refining countercurrent chromatography

Turmeric powder and its main component, curcumin, have a wide range of medi cinal and culinary uses. The purpose of this study was to separate and puri fy curcumin from demethoxycurcumin and bis-demethoxycurcumin which are pres ent in both turmeric powder, and commercial crude curcumin. The separation and purification of curcumin was accomplished through standa rd high-speed countercurrent chromatography (CCC) as well as pH-zone-refini ng CCC. The pH-zone-refining CCC technique was able to separate multi-gram quantities of curcumin and other curcuminoids from crude curcumin and turme ric powder, while maintaining a high level of purity.