Preparation And Purification Of L-Alpha Glycerylphosphorylcholine And L-Alpha Glycerylphosphorylethanolamine

L-alpha glycerylphosphorylcholine (L-α-GPC,"GPC"in short)and L-alpha glycerylphsphorylethanolamine(L-α-GPE,"GPE"in short) are generally believed to be metabolites derived from phosphatidylcholine(PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine(PE) respectively, as a result of hydrolytic activities which occurring naturally in the human body. GPC and GPE can be used in the field of food and pharmaceuticals industries because of their special charateristics and physiological functions. In particular, as pharmaceutical-grade phospholipids, both of them have broad market prospects, for example, as an agent for Alzheimer's disease and as the active principle for the treatment of cerebral psycho-organic syndromes. A process for the preparation and purification of GPC and GPE is disclosed.The study used crude soy lecithin as a starting material. At first, the crude soy lecithin was treated in anhydrous methanol with sodium methylate to get the raw mixtures GPC and GPE within the corresponding deacylated derivatives. The affects of deacylated reaction, the crude soy lecithin/methanol ratio (W: V, g/mL), the sodium methoxide dosage, temperature and reaction time on the yield of both GPC and GPE were investigated. The result showed that the optimized conditions were the crude soy lecithin/methanol ratio (W: V, g/mL) 1:4, the sodium methoxide dosage 5.0%, temperature 35 oC, reaction time 6 h. By HPLC-ELSD detected, the yield of GPC was 93.60%, and the yield of GPE was 88.69%.The alcoholic solution containing the raw mixture of GPC and GPE was charged on the ion exchange resin column chromatography and active charcoal. After screening, the macroreticular cationic resin D001 in acid form equilibrated in methanol and the strong basic resin 201×7 in OH form equilibrated in water were chose to be the two main mediums in the column chromatography to separate GPC and GPE, and the active charcoal was to utilized for decoloration. Through experiments on the affects, the optimal conditions were established. On D001 column, adsorption content should be less than 570 mL alcoholic solution every 100 mL wet resin equilibrated in methanol, washed with 5 times column volumn methanol, and then eluted with neutral water. The decoloration with granulate active charcoal should operate under 60 oC, 0.5 g/100 mL elution from D001 column, 2 h. On 201×7 column, adsorption content should be less than 600 mL decolorated solution every 100 mL wet resin equilibrated in water, eluted with a 1% aqueous solution of acetic acid. Both of the two column were under the room temperature, the adsorption rate and desorption rate were controlled to 1.5 mL/min. The crude GPC solution was then charged on D113 resin column, and dried with vacuum.The product GPC was colourless and with high viscosity, the purity was 97.11%, and the yield was 84.82%. The crude GPE solution was directly dried under vacuum, and the obtained product GPE was light yellow. The purity was 99.88%, and the yield was 78.01%. This process routine provided the theoretical basis for the industrial production.