Semi-preparative isolation of plant sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerols by solid phase extraction and HPLC procedures

Techniques are described for the semi-preparative isolation of sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol from plant leaf tissue lipid extracts and the resolution and analysis of component molecular species. Sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol was resolved from phospholipids in a polar lipid fraction by isocratic normal phase HPLC with detection at 208 nm. The mobile phase was composed of heptane-isopropanol-0.001 M KCl 40:52:8 (v/v/v). Yields from spinach leaf lipid extracts were 1.8 mg.10 g-1 fresh wt leaf tissue. Molecular species components of purified sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol were separated by reversed-phase C18 HPLC, and fatty acid positional distribution was defined.