Extraction and identification of group B soybean saponins based on adsorption chromatography and HPLC-MS

Soybean saponin has a lot of physiological activities and pharmacological action and has been extensively used in health food and medicine. In this paper, an adsorption chromatographic method with a resin column was developed to obtain crude soybean saponins. After that, a silica column was used to separate crude soybean saponins and prepare group B soybean saponins which consist of soybean saponin I, II, III, IV and V. During the process of extraction and separation of soybean saponins, ultraviolet spectrometry (UV), thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) were employed to monitor and identify soybean saponins. The result shows that the developed method can be used to prepare group B soybean saponins.