High‐Speed Countercurrent Chromatography in the Separation of Polyphenols

Countercurrent chromatography is a versatile version of partition chromatography that avoids the use of solid supports. The most widely used variant of this technique, high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC), utilises the intriguing hydrodynamic behaviour of two immiscible solvents in a fast-rotating coiled tube to achieve excellent separations. At the same time, there is no irreversible adsorption and total recovery of the injected sample. This is a great advantage for the isolation of polyphenols, which suffer from tailing and sample loss on chromatography with solid supports. Consequently, HSCCC is ideal for separation of this class of natural products.