Studies On A New Purification Process Of Coenzyme Q10

Coenzyme Q10, a vitamin-like substance, is also called ubiquinone. It can clear the free radical, carry transferring-hydrogen in respiratory chain and improve immune competence.In this study, the purification of Coenzyme Q10 was studied. The adsorption resins and silica gel were used to purify Coenzyme Q10 to develop a new process on the purpose of saving the cost.Firstly, a test method was established to quantify Coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 was tested in HPLC. After being modified, the detection condition is that ethanol: methanol=1:1(v/v) is used as mobile phase; chromatography column(ZORBAX, Eclipse SB-C18,5μm,4.6×150 mm, Agilent, USA); the flow rate is 0.6mL/min; column temperature is 30℃;sample injection 20μl.Secondly, the resins were tested to separate Coenzyme Q10 preliminarily. The performance and separation characteristic tests of macroporous resins HZ806, HZ807, HZ816, HZ818, HZ820 and 20SS were conducted in this study. These results showed that HZ816 was the best absorbent for the tests. Then the separation condition of HZ816 was further studied and optimized. The optimum conditions were as follow:the sample dissolved in ethanol with concentration of 1.6-1.8mg/L was loaded into the HZ816 column for 4BV loading amount at a rate of 3 BV (bed volume)/h, and successively eluted with 5BV at rate of 3 BV/h and 2BV acetone. The resulted elute was concentrated and dried to obtain Coenzyme Q10 which was purified from purity of 56.5% to 93.4% with the recovery of 78.4%.Thirdly, Coenzyme Q10 product separated from the HZ816 resin was further purified by silica gel chromatography. The optimum process is as follow:dissolve the product with eluent (hexane:ethyl acetate=20:1, v/v); the flow rate is 1.5 BV/h; the ratio of silica gel: Coenzyme Q10 is 30:1; height-diameter ratio is5:1. After being further purified, the purity of Coenzyme can be 99% and recovery can be 90%. The silica gel is reused for 10 times. However, its purification is as effective as before.At last, the theory studies on HZ816 adsorbing Coenzyme Q10 were carried out. The theories include isothermal adsorption, thermodynamics and adsorption-kinetics. The results show that adsorption of Coenzyme Q10 is spontaneous, physicaladsorption model and a heat release process.