Preparative purification of corilagin from Phyllanthus by combining ionic liquid extraction, prep-HPLC, and precipitation

Abstract

In this study, a green extraction and purification process for the rapid preparation of corilagin from Phyllanthus has been designed using an aqueous ionic liquid coupled with preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (prep-HPLC) and precipitation. The results showed that the optimum extraction process for corilagin involved mixing Phyllanthus tenellus Roxb. with 0.4 M [BMIm]Br at a liquid–solid ratio of 10 : 1 and dispersing the mixture by ultrasonication at 50 °C for 15 min. Macroporous resin D101 and prep-HPLC were employed for [BMIm]Br removal and corilagin separation to yield corilagin of 86.49% purity. Subsequently, corilagin was further purified by water precipitation to achieve 99.12% purity. The results indicated the successful development of a new rapid and green process to prepare corilagin on a large scale from plants using [BMIm]Br. This promising process can be applied for the preparative separation and purification of other active compounds from complex plant systems.