throughout the description of the invention reference is made to certain publications including scientific articles and patents or patent applications . it is intended that each of these publications be incorporated by reference when referred to in the specification . unless defined otherwise all technical and scientific terms used have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs . although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present invention , the preferred methods and materials are described herein . as this process is operated on an intermittent basis , and the quinoa seed may be from different cultivars , the composition of the bran used in the following examples is not uniform in terms of total saponin content , although all three main saponins were always present in approximately equal proportions . an unexpected discovery was that extraction of triterpenoid saponins from quinoa grain and quinoa bran is highly influenced by the solvent used and the conditions applied to the extraction , and that application of the prior art to the concentration and purification of the saponins and their corresponding sapogenins yielded disappointing results which would have a significant impact on the commercial recovery of these compounds from quinoa bran . the present invention describes a simple and efficient process for the recovery of saponins and sapogenins from quinoa grain and / or quinoa bran and for the fractionation and purification of these compounds to states of purity up to and including greater than 98 % pure . an important aspect of the present invention is the development of an analytical rp - hplc chromatographic separation that enabled monitoring and also the simultaneous quantization of both saponins and sapogenins in quinoa extracts . this technique can best be illustrated by reference to fig1 which depicts the chromatography of the partially hydrolyzed aqueous ethanol extract of quinoa bran . in this figure the saponins and their corresponding sapogenins are clearly resolved from each other . using this analytical technique , the inventors were able to follow the precise distribution of the saponins and sapogenins during the extraction and purification process . the effects of lower alcohols and combinations of lower alcohols and water and water alone , were investigated for their effectiveness in extracting saponins from the bran . surprisingly , water , which is widely and traditionally used for extraction of saponins , was not particularly efficient , nor were pure alcohols . aqueous alcohols in the range 50 - 75 % v / v were found to be the preferred solvents , yielding significantly higher amounts of saponins from the bran and in proportion to that found in the whole grain . an added benefit of aqueous alcohol extraction was the concentration effect that occurred when the alcohol was removed by flash evaporation or an alternative method such as rising film evaporation . a surprising additional benefit was obtained in that the aqueous alcohol extracts did not require preservation with sodium azide as taught in the prior art of kensil ( wo 88 / 09336 , u . s . pat . no . 5 , 057 , 540 , oct . 15 , 1991 ). a number of options for purification of the quinoa saponins were investigated . surprisingly , when the process described by kensil et al . ( wo 88 / 09336 , u . s . pat . no . 5 , 057 , 540 , oct . 15 , 1991 ) was applied to a sample of quinoa bran only 27 . 4 % of the saponins in the aqueous extract were found in the methanol soluble fraction and the saponin profile differed significantly from that of the initial extract . the methanol soluble fraction was enriched in saponin a and contained proportionally less of saponin c in relation to the aqueous extract ( table 2 ). the use of a 15 , 000 mwco ultrafiltration membrane was also examined for possible utility in removing protein from the saponin extract . surprisingly , it was determined that only approximately { fraction ( 1 / 3 )} of the saponin in the extract was able to pass through the 15 , 000 mwco membrane even with repeated dilution of the retentate . thus the use of a 15 , 000 mwco membrane served only to dilute the saponin content of the permeate and resulted in the distribution of the saponins into both fractions . the use of a 300 mwco ultrafiltration membrane , however , proved useful in that less than 1 % of the saponin passed through this membrane and the retentate was highly enriched in saponins . the use of silica gel chromatography and semi - preparative hplc as described in prior art ( kensil ; wo 88 / 09336 , u . s . pat . no . 5 , 057 , 540 , oct . 15 , 1991 ) is clearly not practical on a large scale , employing mixed solvents that are difficult to recycle and has not been demonstrated to be practical on a commercial scale . as is demonstrated in examples to follow , the approach described in the prior art would only be applicable to the 27 % of the quinoa saponin that could readily solvated in methanol . having discussed the short comings of the prior art and described our invention in general terms , the full impact of our invention will be illustrated in the following examples . these are given by way of differentiating the present invention from aspects of the prior art and should not be taken in any way to limit the scope of the present invention . quinoa bran obtained from the commercial de - branning of quinoa grain was extracted with the following solvents : water , 50 % v / v methanol , 50 % v / v ethanol , 95 % ethanol and methanol . the resulting extracts were filtered and analyzed by rp - hplc . the saponin content was determined by chromatography on a waters symmetry c - 18 column ( 3 . 0 × 250 mm , 5 μm ) eluted with a linear gradient of aqueous 0 . 05 % v / v tfa : acetonitrile ( t = 0 ,% ch 3 cn = 5 ; t = 25 , % ch 3 cn = 95 ) at a flow rate of 0 . 4 ml / min , with uv detection at 210 nm and evaporative light scattering detection ( elsd ). waters novapak c - 18 ( 3 . 9 × 150 mm , 4 μm ) eluted with a linear gradient of aqueous 0 . 05 % trifluoroacetic acid : acetonitrile containing 0 . 05 % tfa ( t = 0 ,% ch 3 cn = 5 ; t = 20 ,% ch 3 cn = 95 ) at a flow rate of 1 ml / min . quantitation of saponins was initially by external standards using the saponin hederacoside c ( indofine ) as the external standard . however , subsequent calculations of saponin content employed purified quinoa saponins purified in our laboratories as standards . the composition of the saponin extracts of quinoa is shown in fig2 . the saponin profile of the 50 % v / v ethanol extract of the bran was also compared to the 50 % v / v ethanol extract of the whole or ground seed ( fig2 ). the saponin profile was essentially identical for all three extracts ( fig2 b , d , f ), however the whole seed and whole ground seed extracts contained significantly more uv absorbing impurities ( fig2 a , c ) than the bran extract ( fig2 e ), and which additionally would have to be removed in the purification process . the bran was also the preferred source on the basis of the significantly higher concentration ( 50 ×) of saponin in the bran compared to whole or ground seed ( table 1 ). the optimal extraction conditions for the recovery of saponins from quinoa bran was determined from a series of optimization studies . the effects of varying extraction temperature ( 25 ° c . to 65 ° c .) was found to have little effect on recovery of saponins , however both liquid to solids ratio and the alcohol content of the extracting solvent had highly significant effects on extraction efficiency ( fig3 .). the saponin profile of the extracts obtained under the different extraction conditions was examined by rp - hplc . surprisingly , not only does the composition of the extracting solvent effect the extraction efficiency but it also effects the composition of the extract . the 100 % methanol extract , a commonly used extraction solvent , gave the lowest extraction efficiency while preferentially extracting only one of the three main saponins ( fig4 .). to establish the practicality of large scale extraction of saponins , quinoa bran ( 100 kg ) obtained from the commercial de - branning of quinoa was contacted with 50 % aqueous ethanol ( v / v ) ( liquid to solids ; 10 : 1 ) in a stainless steel kettle for 4 hours under stirring . the aqueous ethanol was decanted from the solid residue using a westphalia decanting centrifuge , and replaced with a similar volume of clean solvent for a further 4 hours . the liquid extract was again separated from the solid residue by centrifugation in a westphalia decanting centrifuge and the resulting liquid extract combined with the first extract . the combined aqueous alcohol extracts were filtered through a plate and flame filter to polish the extract . the filtered extract was reduced to the aqueous phase by flash evaporation on a apv evaporator . the resulting aqueous extract was spray - dried to yield 27 kg of dried extract . the saponin content of the spray - dried powder was determined to be 78 % comprised of 24 . 6 % saponin a , 39 . 7 % saponin b and 35 . 5 % saponin c . the prior art describes a number of procedures for purification of saponins . these procedures were evaluated in a comparative study . a ) partition of saponins between aqueous extracts and a water immiscible solvent . a common method for purification of saponins involves extraction of the saponins from an aqueous solution into a n - butanol solution . aqueous extracts of quinoa bran ( 2 . 52 g of bran in 50 ml water , for 4 hr at 50 ° c .) were subjected to n - butanol partition extraction and the aqueous and n - butanol fractions analyzed by rp - hplc . n - butanol was found to be relatively inefficient for extraction of quinoa saponins from the aqueous phase . after 4 exchanges with n - butanol , 58 % of the total saponins still remained in the aqueous phase . the experiment was repeated for saponin extracts obtained by extraction with 50 % v / v methanol , 50 % v / v ethanol and 100 % methanol . in these experiments , the alcohol was first removed by evaporation under reduced pressure and the resulting extract reconstituted in water . in all cases between 33 and 62 % of the total saponins remained in the aqueous phase after n - butanol extraction . surprisingly , the rp - hplc analysis of the n - butanol and aqueous phases revealed that the three principle saponins present in quinoa exhibited different solubilities in n - butanol . in all examples , n - butanol preferentially extracted saponin a , leaving almost none of this saponin in the aqueous phase , while almost none of saponin c was recovered in the n - butanol phase ( fig5 ). the partitioning of quinoa saponins , obtained by extraction of quinoa bran with 50 % w / v ethanol , between water and high alcohol was also investigated . the 50 % w / v ethanol extract was reduced to the aqueous phase and spray - dried . the resulting powder was dissolved in water ( 100 ml containing 500 mg of saponin powder ) and extracted 3 times with 50 ml of a water immiscible higher alcohol . the organic phases were recovered and combined , reduced to dryness , reconstituted in 50 % v / v methanol and analysed by hplc . the remaining aqueous phases were also reconstituted to 50 % v / v methanol and analysed by hplc . in all cases examined ( table 2 ), the higher alcohols were relatively inefficient at recovering the saponins with recoveries ranging from 15 % for 2 - octanol to 40 % for n - butanol . in all cases the saponin profile in the organic fraction did not represent the distribution observed in the crude saponin fraction , nor did they provide sufficient selectivity in extraction to be a useful purification tool . quinoa saponin partition characteristics between water and chloroform , ethyl acetate and methyl ethyl ketone were also investigated . in all cases the water phase was extracted 3 times with the organic phase and the saponin content of the combined organic phases determined . the proportion of the saponin recovered in the organic phase was 4 . 4 and 6 . 5 % respectively . [ 0084 ] table 3 effect of membrane filtration ( 15 , 000 mwco ) and methanol solubilization on saponin recovery from aqueous quinoa extracts . saponin yield in g . total sample saponins saponin a saponin b saponin c original extract 4 . 64 1 . 09 1 . 24 0 . 96 retentate 3 . 98 0 . 88 1 . 02 0 . 77 methanol soluble 1 . 27 0 . 46 0 . 25 0 . 13 methanol insoluble 2 . 77 0 . 40 0 . 80 0 . 62 dialysis of aqueous saponin extracts is also described in the prior art . dialysis of aqueous quinoa bran extracts using conventional dialysis membranes did not appear to offer any significant benefit . dialysis using a 500 mwco cellulose ester membrane ( spectra / por ce ; spectrum medical industries ) did not change the saponin content of the retentate or significantly alter its uv or elsd profile . dialysis with 1000 mwco regenerated cellulose ( spectra / por 6 ; spectrum medical industries ) and 3500 mwco regenerated cellulose ( spectra / por 3 ; spectrum medical industries ) membranes afforded a slight increase in the saponin content of the retentate . there was a reduction in some of the nonsaponin peaks in the uv - chromatograms but no significant changes in the saponin profiles by with uv or elsd detection . membrane filtration or ultrafiltration is a technique commonly employed in commercial practice to concentrate solutes in an extract . the crude saponin extract from quinoa was processed by passage over a membrane with a molecular weight cut - off of 15 , 000 . quinoa bran ( 100 g ) was extracted with water ( 1 l ). the aqueous extract was filtered and 250 ml of the extract was centrifuged at 10 , 000 rpm for 30 minutes . the supernatant was lyophilized ( 9 . 4 g ) and redissolved in 30 ml of water . the ph was adjusted to less than 4 with the addition of 300 μl of 1 n acetic acid . the solution was membrane filtered over a 15 , 000 mwco membrane . both the retentate and the filtrate were recovered and lyophilized for analysis . the lyophilized retentate was extracted with methanol ( 3 × 60 ml at 60 ° c .) followed by centrifugation ( 3500 rpm , 10 minutes ). the methanol extracts were combined and along with the methanol insoluble material , analyzed for saponins . approximately 10 % of the saponins present in the original extract were lost at each stage . of the 4 . 64 g of saponin present in the original extract only 1 . 27 g ( 27 . 4 %) was recovered from the methanol soluble fraction . the remaining 73 % was either retained on the membrane or distributed between the permeate and the methanol insoluble fractions . the saponin profile of the methanol soluble fraction was also significantly different from the original extract ( table 3 ). the methanol soluble fraction was enriched in saponin a and contained proportionally less saponin c than the original extract . the saponin fraction in a 50 % w / v ethanolic extract of quinoa bran can be successfully concentrated and purified directly by passage over a membrane with a molecular weight cut - off of 300 . quinoa bran ( 25 g ) was extracted with 50 % v / v ethanol ( 1 . 25 l ) for 4 hours and filtered to yield 1 . 21 l of extract . a subsample ( 121 ml containing 2 . 861 g of saponin ) was applied to a 300 mwco membrane and filtered under positive nitrogen pressure . the filtrate ( 85 ml ) and the retentate ( 30 ml ) were recovered for saponin analysis . approximately 10 % of the saponin was retained on the membrane . less than 1 % of the recovered saponin was in the filtrate . 99 % of the recovered saponin was in the retentate ( 89 . 7 % of the applied saponin ) in 25 % of the original sample volume . the 50 % v / v aqueous ethanol extracts of quinoa bran can be reduced to a substantially aqueous phase ( 5 % ethanol ) prior to ultrafiltration . in this example the inventors observed that a slightly larger pore size membrane may be employed with a greater membrane flux . in this example , 150 gm of spray - dried 50 % w / v ethanol extract ( equivalent to 385 gm of bran ) was reconstituted in 20 l of 5 % aqueous ethanol , filtered to remove any undissolved particulate material and cycled over a 1000 mwco spiral wound membrane ( amicon s3y1 ) with a permeate flow rate of 18 ml / min . the volume of saponin extract retentate was maintained at 20 l by addition of 5 % ethanol to prevent precipitation on the membrane surface . the saponin extract was determined to be 77 % saponin ( 115 gm of saponin contained in 150 gm of powder ) by hplc analysis before the ultrafiltration step and 89 % saponin ( 83 gm of saponin in 93 . 3 gm of powder ) in the retentate at the end of the experiment . the permeate contained 31 % of the applied solids with a saponin content of 7 % which was exclusively saponin a . this represented 2 . 6 % of the applied saponin and / or 3 . 4 % of the recovered saponin . the highly enriched retentate fraction was chromatographed on a bondapack c - 18 waters preparative column ( 40 × 310 mm ) eluted with a gradient of aqueous 1 % acetic acid and methanol at a flow rate of 50 ml / min ( t = 0 ,% ch 3 oh = 35 ; t = 20 ,% ch 3 oh = 60 ; t = 30 ,% ch 3 oh = 80 ; t = 40 ,% ch 3 oh = 80 ). saponin a eluted between 29 and 31 minutes ( fig6 a ), saponin b eluted between 31 and 33 minutes ( fig6 b ) and saponin c eluted between 35 and 37 minutes ( fig6 c ). quinoa saponins were separated into three major fractions , each highly enriched in one of the three most abundant saponins present in the total extract . the starting material in this example was the spray - dried powder obtained by extraction of quinoa bran with 50 % w / v ethanol . the powder ( 200 gm ) was reconstituted in 1 % methanol , filtered , and applied to a solid - phase extraction cartridge ( 12 kg of c - 18 rp resin - waters c - 18 , 125å , 55 - 105 μm ) preconditioned with 1 % methanol . the non - retained material was washed from the column with 5 % methanol and the three major saponins eluted in turn with 40 % methanol . hydrolysis of quinoa saponins to their corresponding sapogenins and recovery as a concentrated sapogenin powder . based on the prior art several different hydrolysis conditions were investigated to determine the most efficient method for cleavage of the sugars from the saponins to give the free sapogenins . both aqueous alcoholic solutions of sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid were found to cause effective hydrolysis of quinoa sapogenins to their corresponding sapogenins , however hydrochloric acid was found to be the preferred acid for it generated fewer artifacts . phosphoric acid , acetic acid , sodium hydroxide and ammonia were all found to have little hydrolytic activity against quinoa saponins or to produce products other than the desired sapogenins . to determine the preferred duration of hydrolysis , the spray - dried aqueous ethanol extract of quinoa bran was dissolved in aqueous ethanol containing 2 . 8 n hcl . aliquots were removed at 2 hour intervals and the concentration of the corresponding sapogenins determined by rp - hplc . the release of the three principle sapogenins ( oleanolic acid , hederagenin and phytolaccagenic acid ) reached maximum levels after 4 hours of exposure to hydrolytic conditions ( fig7 ). by 6 hours , the concentration of phytolaccagenic acid and hederagenin had begun to decline and by 8 hours , the concentration of oleanolic acid had also begun to decline indicating that excessive exposure to 2 . 8 n hcl caused decomposition of the saponins themselves . however , for large scale production of sapogenins , the uses of 2 . 8 n hcl was not preferred as the resulting extracts were difficult to concentrate and required excessive amounts of base to neutralize , resulting in a significant decrease in the concentration of the sapogenins and operational inefficiencies . for example , the use of acid strengths greater than 1 n may require glass reactors . for large scale production , milder conditions were found to be practical . the spray - dried extract ( 200 gm ) was dissolved in 3 l of 50 % ethanol and 450 ml of conc . hcl ( ph 2 ) ( 1 . 58 n ) and refluxed for 7 hours . the hydrolyzed extract is allowed to cool and the resulting dark brown precipitate is recovered by filtration ( 96 . 2 g ). when the precipitate is slurried in water ( 2 l ) and adjusted to ph 11 with 50 % w / w naoh , the pigmented material remains in solution leaving an off - white crystalline precipitate . the resulting crystalline precipitate was recovered by filtration , washed with dilute acid ( 1 l of 0 . 5 n hcl ), followed by water ( 5 l ) until the effluent is no longer coloured with a yield of 54 . 8 grams . the resulting product is an off - white powder that contains approximately 80 % sapogenin comprising approximately equal amounts of the three sapogenins present ( oleanolic acid , hederagenin and phytolaccagenic acid in a ratio of 2 : 4 : 4 ) ( fig8 ). the structure of the sapogenins was confirmed by standard analytical techniques including lc - ms , 1 h - nmr and 13 c - nmr . a crude sapogenin mixture ( 150 g ) ( fig8 ) prepared by acid hydrolysis of the aqueous alcohol extract of quinoa bran is dissolved in 60 % methanol adjusted to ph 9 with sodium hydroxide . the mildly basic solution is pumped onto a solid phase extraction ( spe ) cartridge ( 17 l ) and washed with 60 % methanol ( neutral ph ). further elution of the spe cartridge with 60 % methanol yields a fraction that is essentially pure phytolaccagenic acid ( fig9 a ). sequential elution of the spe cartridge with 70 % and 85 % methanol yields fractions that are essentially pure hederagenin ( fig9 b ), and pure oleanolic acid ( fig9 c ) respectively . the sapogenins thus obtained may be further purified by recrystallization from hot methanol or hot 95 % alcohol , and / or preparative hplc on rp - hplc preparative columns eluted with methanol and aqueous acetic acid to obtain the desired levels of purity .
a process for commercial extraction of saponins from quinoa , and optionally for the formation of corresponding sapogenins . the saponin extraction process comprises contacting a saponin - containing part of a quinoa plant with an aqueous alcohol solution containing an alcohol selected from the group consisting of methanol and ethanol to form a saponin - containing solution and an extracted solid residue , removing the alcohol from the saponin - containing solution to leave a saponin - containing aqueous solution , and evaporating water from the saponin - containing aqueous solution to produce a saponin - containing product . the conversion to sapogenins involves obtaining a solution of saponins in an aqueous alcohol , adding a strong acid to the solution to hydrolyze the saponins to form corresponding sapogenins that precipitates out of the solution as a precipitate , recovering the precipitate , and decolorizing the precipitate by forming a slurry of the precipitate with a solution of an aqueous base to form a decolorized sapogenin product .