Application of high-speed countercurrent chromatography for the isolation of sulforaphane from broccoli seed meal

In order to produce large amounts of pure sulforaphane for research purposes, a novel method using high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) was developed. Without any initial cleanup steps, sultoraphane was successfully purified from the ethyl acetate extract of the broccoli seed meal by HSCCC. The separation was performed with two-phase solvent systems: n-hexane/ethyl acetate/ methanol/water (1:5:1:5, v/v/v/v). From 850 mg of the ethyl acetate extract, 186 mg of sultoraphane was isolated with the solvent system. The purified compound was over 97% purity as determined by HPLC analysis, and the chemical structure was confirmed by MS and ¹H and ¹³C NMR. © 2008 American Chemical Society.