Methods for extracting and purifying capsinoids such as capsiate and dihydrocapsiate fromsp. fruit

Abstract

Disclosed are methods of extracting and purifying capsinoids (e.g., capsiate, dihydrocapsiate) fromspecies fruit involving drying (e.g., freeze drying) the fruit to produce dried fruit and grinding the dried fruit to produce powdered fruit, extracting the powdered fruit at least once with a non-polar organic solvent (e.g., pentane, hexane, heptane, iso-octane, cyclohexane) to produce an organic solvent extract, subjecting the organic solvent extract at least once to liquid/liquid extraction (partitioning; no drying involved) using a polar solvent (e.g., acetonitrile, methanol) to form a capsinoid enriched polar solvent partition, and optionally purifying the capsinoid enriched polar solvent partition (e.g., via HPLC using acetonitrile as a carrier) to yield capsinoids. The non-polar organic solvent is not miscible with the polar solvent.