Application of countercurrent chromatography (CCC) to the analysis of natural pigments

A brief outline of the principle and instrumentation of the all-liquid chromatographic technique of countercurrent chromatography (CCC) will be presented together with an overview on various applications of CCC in the field of natural pigments. Numerous successful separations (e.g. anthocyanins, carotenoids, chlorophyll related pigments, and betalains) demonstrate the versatility of this relatively new separation technique. CCC was found to be almost universally applicable to polar and nonpolar natural pigments and novel CCC instrumentation enables separations on a preparative (>100 g up to kilogram) scale.