Evaluation of fructooligosaccharides separation using a fixed-bed column packed with activated charcoal

Recent studies have shown that the chromatographic separation of mixtures of saccharides may be improved by making use of activated charcoal, a promising low cost material for the separation of sugars, including fructooligosaccharides. In this work, the development of a methodology to separate fructooligosaccharides from glucose, fructose and sucrose, using a fixed bed column packed with activated charcoal is proposed. The influence of temperature, eluant concentration and step gradients were evaluated to increase the separation efficiency and fructooligosaccharide purity. The final degree of fructooligosaccharide purification and separation efficiency were about 94% and 3.03 respectively, using ethanol gradient concentration ranging from 3.5% to 15% (v/v) at 40°C. The fixed bed column packed with the activated charcoal was shown to be a promising alternative for sugar separation, mainly those rich in fructooligosaccharides, leading to solutions of acceptable degrees of purification.