茶皂素为五环三萜类糖苷化合物,分子量较大,极性强,易溶于水,起泡性强。从茶籽饼中提取的茶皂素粗品溶于水后色泽深。这类色素成分亦为极性较大的水中易溶性成分,从而给茶皂素的脱色纯化带来了困难。本文主要通过碱性水饱和正丁醇对粗品茶皂素进行初步脱色与提纯,再利用筛选的大孔树脂对萃取相中的皂素进行进一步脱色,以制备色泽浅的茶皂素产品。结果表明,茶皂素在中强碱的水饱和正丁醇中的溶解度大于未加碱的萃取体系,同时色素得到大幅度去除。另外,以D280树脂进行后续脱色处理后,产品的纯度达到91%。因此,两种技术手段结合纯化茶皂素可以达到预期的目的。

Tea-saponins as the glycoside of pent-acyclic triterpenoid, which are extracted from camellia seeds, have a high molecule weight, strong polar, and easily water solubility characteristics. They are not only effective in decontamination, foaming, emulsification, decentralization and saturation, but also with function of diminishing inflammation, easing pain and resisting epiphyte. However, for the dark brown pigments of crude extraction from tea-cake were hard to remove using traditional methods, the saponins in the field of food, drink, hair care products and high-end daily health products are strongly restricted. In this paper, we employed basic water saturated butanol extraction system combined with macroporous resin for purification of tea-saponins. The results showed that tea-saponins were preferred to dissolve in the upper phase of basic water saturated butanol extraction system under the water solution containing moderate alkali. And the D280 was the optimum macroporous resin for removing the pigments after the extraction of basic water saturated butanol system. Finally, the product of purified tea-saponin is colorless (the light-absorbance value of the pigments in end-product was down from 0.15 to 0.02) and high purity (91 %, w/w). In conclusion, basic water saturated butanol extraction system combined with macroporous resin is suitable for purifying crude tea-saponins.