Effect of Supercritical Fluid Extraction on Proantho-
cyanidins Elution Profile on Sephadex LH-20. Cranberry
PAC were not detected in SFE fractions from cycles 1 and 2
when analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS (data not shown). The remaining fruit residue was submitted to extraction and
Sephadex LH-20 chromatography to isolate PAC.23 PAC with
DP between 2 and 4 could be detected in the EMNSFE fraction
(Figure 3A), whereas in the EMSFE fraction, PAC up to DP = 7
were detected (Figure 3B). Pretreatment with SFE affected the
distribution of PAC interflavan bonds within a specific DP. For
instance, in EMNSFE, in PAC trimers, the distribution was 2.3%
of two “A-type”, 32.5% of one “A-type”, and 65.2% of zero “A-
type” (Figure 3C). In EMSFE, the distribution for trimers was
1.5% of two “A-type”, 81.3% of one “A-type”, and 17.2% of zero
“A-type” (Figure 3D). Therefore, more PAC with one “A-type”
interflavan bonds were eluted from the Sephadex LH-20
column with ethanol/methanol when the cranberries had been
previously treated with SFE.
In ACNSFE, PAC had a DP between 3 and 12 as detected with
MALDI-TOF MS in reflectron mode (Figure 4A). In ACSFE,
the same DP range was detected but the distribution was
skewed toward PAC with higher DP as shown in the MALDI-
TOF MS spectra (Figure 4B).
The deconvolution method24 was applied only to PAC with
DP between 3 and 8 because the signal-to-noise ratio was