Abstract: AB-8 macroporous resin was used to purify commercial crude sasanquasaponin with low purity. The optimal purification process was determined as follows: 30 g/L crude sample solution was loaded followed by washing the resin with 30% ethanol aqueous solution to remove unwanted impurities including most pigments and partial proteins, and the adsorbed sasanquasaponin was finally eluted with 70% ethanol aqueous solution, resulting in a recovery of 55.5% and a purification factor of 1.86. After eighth repeated use, the adsorption and elution capacities of this resin were unchanged basically. Furthermore, the scale-up experiments demonstrated the suitability for industrial production. The LC-TOF-MS analysis indicated that the molecular weight of the purified sasanquasaponin mainly varied between 1170 and 1304 D. In addition, a sasanquasaponin compound with molecular formula C58H89O26 was identified and its structural formula was deduced.

Key words: sasanquasaponin, macroporous resin, LC/TOF-MS