Column-chromatographic extraction and separation of polyphenols, caffeine and theanine from green tea

A highly efficient column-chromatographic extraction (CCE) followed by sequential adsorption to extract and separate bioactive compounds from green tea was developed. Tea powder was loaded into columns with 4-fold solvents and eluted through a cyclic CCE. High-quality tea extracts with greater than 90% extraction efficiencies of polyphenols, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, caffeine, theanine and polysaccharides were obtained with 4-fold water circulated five times among different columns at 70 °C. Similar results, except for low polysaccharide extraction (35.5%), were obtained with 4-fold 30% ethanol circulated three times at room temperature. The highly concentrated water extraction was directly passed through columns of polyamide, DM130 macroporous and 732 ion exchange resins, resulting in high-purity polyphenols (99%), caffeine (98%) and theanine (98%) after simple purification of the eluates from each column. This method uses simple equipment, minimum solvents and can be used for both quantitative analysis and continuous preparation of high-quality tea extracts and bioactive compounds.