Purification of sulforaphane from Brassica oleracea seed meal using low-pressure column chromatography

Sulforaphane is an isothiocyanate that is present naturally in widely consumed Brassica oleracea vegetables and has been shown to block the formation of tumors. The contents of sulforaphane in five groups of B. oleracea seeds (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale) were determined by RP-HPLC using linear gradient of acetonitrile in water. A new low-cost method to isolate and purify natural sulforaphane from B. oleracea seed meal was described in this work. Crude sulforaphane was first separated from B. oleracea seed meal by using immiscible solvent extraction with ethyl acetate, 10% ethanol and hexane, and the crude sulforaphane was used as raw materials to prepare high purity sulforaphane by low-pressure column chromatography of silica gel (200-300 mesh) with different eluents and elution modes. Compared with these different elution methods, the gradient elution was preferable to the isocratic elution for reducing the elution time and the eluent consumption and increasing the purity of sulforaphane product. The purity and recovery of sulforaphane were more than 90% in gradient elution.