Antioxidant chlorophyll purification from maize leaves by liquid-to-liquid extraction method

Abstract

Chlorophyll is the blood of plant possesses a medical-value for treating support of disease in human, and the paper focused on the purification of antioxidant chlorophyll extracting from maize leaves in Vietnam. Chlorophyll was extracted with 96% ethanol and segmented by different solvents, for example, n-hexane, 96% ethanol, and ethyl acetate, respectively. Ethanol fraction was running via the chromatography column of silica gel for collecting antioxidant purified chlorophyll. All fractions were analysed chlorophyll content, antioxidant activities (total antioxidant activity, reducing power activity, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity) and run the thin layer chromatography for determining the chlorophyll purification degree and the Rf. The results showed that the purification of antioxidant chlorophyll from maize leaves was by using the liquid-liquid segment and the column run, for example, in turn, ethanol, n-hexane, ethanol, and the silica gel chromatography. The highest value of chlorophyll content, total antioxidant activity, reducing power activity, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity was 0.563±0.003 µg chl equivalent/ml, 1.392±0.018 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/ml, 3.396±0,024 mg FeSO4/ml, and 76.34±0.81 (%), respectively, as the n-hexane/ethanol ratio of 1/1 (v/v). After the chromatography run, chlorophyll content, total antioxidant activity, reducing power activity, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity corresponded to 0.217±0.002 µg chl equivalent/ml, 0.628±0.013 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/ml, 1.928±0.019 mg FeSO4/ml, and 77.19±0.58 (%), respectively. Keywords: antioxidant, chlorophyll, maize, purification, liquid-to-liquid