Studies on the Separation and Purification of the Caulis sinomenii Extract Solution Using Microfiltration and Ultrafiltration

The separation and purification process of alkaloids faces great challenges of pollution, high energy consumption and low continuity. In this study, the effects of ceramic microfiltration (MF) membrane (membrane pore size of 0.50 μm, 0.20 μm, 0.05 μm) and organic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane (membrane molecular weight cut-off of 10 KDa and 1 KDa) on the separation and purification of Caulis sinomenii extract solution in pilot scale were studied. The cleaning effects of different cleaning methods (pure water, 1% HCl-NaOH, 1% sodium hypochlorite) were investigated. The experimental results indicated that 0.05 μm ceramic membrane and 1 kDa UF membrane have higher sinomenine hydrochloride (SH) permeabilities and total solids (TS) removal rates. The ceramic membrane was circulating cleaned by 1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 1 h; the membrane flux can be restored to more than 90% of the original, the membrane flux of 1 kDa UF membrane can be restored to 99.2% of the original by pure water washing. From the above study, the optimal technic parameters was determined in which 0.05 μm ceramic MF membrane and 1 kDa UF membrane were used to separate and purify the Caulis sinomenii extract solution to remove the invalid ingredients, and the two kinds of membranes were cleaned with 1% sodium hypochlorite solution and pure water, respectively, to keep satisfactory membrane fluxes. The study provided an environment-friendly alternative for the separation and purification of alkaloids in natural products, which has a good prospect for the industrial application.