Adsorption properties of macroporous adsorbent resins for separation of anthocyanins from mulberry

In this study, the adsorption/desorption characteristics of mulberry anthocyanins (MA) on five types of macroporous resins (XAD-7HP, AB-8, HP-20, D-101 and X-5) were evaluated, XAD-7HP and AB-8 showed higher adsorption/desorption capacities. On the basis of static adsorption test, XAD-7HP and AB-8 resins were selected for kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics. The adsorption mechanism indicated that the process was better explained by pseudo-first-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm model, and the thermodynamics tests showed that the processes were exothermic, spontaneous and thermodynamically feasible. Dynamic tests were performed on a column packed with XAD-7HP and AB-8, and breakthrough volume was reached at 15 and 14 bed volumes of MA solution, respectively. The purity of the fraction by 40% ethanol elution on XAD-7HP reached 93.6%, from which cyanidin-3-glucoside and cyanidin-3-rutinoside were identified by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The method could be used to prepare high purity anthocyanins from mulberry fruits as well as other plants.