This paper reports a new production process for chicoric acid from a crude ethanol extract of Echinacea purpurea by macroreticular resin，extraction and crystallization. Nine macroreticular resins were evaluated for their adsorptive and desorptive ability of chicoric acid.The non-ionic exchange resin AB-8 was selected as suitable adsorbent because it showed better selectivity，adsorption capacity and desorption ability of chicoric acid than other resins. The operation conditions were defined in a 50 ml column. Using a 50 L column，about 10 kg of the crude extract could be loaded on this column and 556-g quantities of chicoric acid（>70% purity) could be obtained. The recovery of chicoric acid from the adsorptive column was greater than 96%. Followed extraction by ethyl acetate and crystallization，342-g of chicoric acid with a purity of 97.5% was obtained. Using this method，industrial-scale production of chicoric acid could be realized.
展开▼
