Abstract: 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.

Key words: saponin, basic water saturated butanol, macroporous resin