PREPARATIVE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR THE PURIFICATION OF NATURAL ANTHOCYANINS

Preparative HPLC was applied to the purification of anthocyanins from raw extracts of strawberry, elderberry, eggplant and radish and from enocyanin. For each separation, the chromatographic conditions were optimized to achieve an efficient purification in the shortest time. The anthocyanins isolated were compared with reference standards, whenever they were available. In addition, UV-visible characterization was carried out on all the anthocyanins purified. Determination of the complete structure of acylated anthocyanins will require further support from fast atom bombardment MS and NMR analyses, which are in progress.