Preparation of camellia saponin by flocculation-precipitation method

The aqueous phase obtained in the oil-tea camellia seeds oil extraction by aqueous enzymatic method was used as raw material,and the camellia saponin was extracted by flocculation-precipitation method.Based on the single factor experiments,it was found to be better when 1% chitosan solution was used with the amount of 16% total liquid volume and the loss rate of camellia saponin was 22.24%.The supernatant obtained by flocculation-centrifuge was used as material,and the orthogonal test was employed to confirm the optimal precipitation-transformation conditions.The optimal conditions were determined as follows: the amount of CaO 3%(on the basis of the supernatant mass)was added to the supernatant and then precipitated for 6 h at 20 ℃;after centrifugation,NH4HCO3 was added to the sediment and its dosage was 2.5 times of CaO amount,and then released at 40 ℃ for 0.5 h.Under the optimal conditions the content of camellia saponin was 80.25%.This method could increase the product purity as well as concentrating the camellia saponin aqueous solution,and reduce the energy consumption.