Quantitative fractionation of grape proanthocyanidins according to their degree of polymerization

A method was developed for the fractionation of grape (seed or skin) proanthocyanidins according to their degree of polymerization. After precipitation in chloroform/methanol (75:25, v/v), the grape proanthocyanidins were deposited onto an inert glass powder column and sequentially dissolved in several fractions by increasing proportions of methanol in the solvent. Each fraction from each proanthocyanidin source was quantified and characterized after acidic degradation with phenylmethanethiol (i.e., thiolysis). The comparison of data from total extract and successive fractions showed that a quantitative separation was achieved so that estimation of polymer size distribution in relation to other compositional characteristics (proportions of prodelphinidin units, galloylation rate) was thus possible. Mean degree of polymerization of separated proanthocyanidins ranged increasingly from 4.7 to 17.4 in seed (8.1 for total extract) and from 9.3 to 73.8 in skin (34.9 for total extract). The method proposed is very interesting for the study of grape proanthocyanidins according to their degree of polymerization because it gives both qualitative and quantitative information especially on the highly polymerized forms, which were not fractionated by previous techniques.