Separation of vitexin-4″-O-glucoside and vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside from hawthorn leaves extracts using macroporous resins

• The HPD-400 resin had good adsorption/desorption capacities of VOG and VOR.
• Adsorption isotherms were constructed for the HPD-400 resin and well fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich models.
• The variables for the dynamic adsorption and desorption were optimized.
• The developed method is suitable for large-scale purification of VOG and VOR.

Vitexin-4″-O-glucoside and vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside are the major flavonoids of hawthorn leaves. In this work, the adsorption and desorption characteristics of vitexin-4″-O-glucoside and vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside on seven macroporous resins were evaluated. Among the tested resins, the HPD-400 resin showed the best adsorption and desorption capacities. Adsorption isotherms were constructed for the HPD-400 resin and well fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich models. Dynamic adsorption and desorption tests were performed on column packed with the HPD-400 resin to optimize the chromatographic parameters. After one run treatment with the HPD-400 resin, the contents of vitexin-4″-O-glucoside and vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside in the product were increased 8.44-fold and 8.43-fold from 0.720% and 2.63% to 6.08% and 22.2% with recovery yields of 79.1% and 81.2%, respectively. These results show that the developed method is a promising basis for the large-scale purification of vitexin-4″-O-glucoside and vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside from hawthorn leaves and other plant materials.