Simple and effective large-scale preparation of geniposide from fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis using a liquid-liquid two-phase extraction.

Geniposide was prepared on a large-scale using a selective two-phase liquid-liquid extraction. The aqueous residue from the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis was treated with sodium carbonate and extracted with n-butanol several times. The n-butanol extracts were treated with activated granular charcoal to remove pigments and were then concentrated to produce a residue with a high solid content. The residue was crystallized to obtain geniposide with 98% purity. For large-scale synthesis, the residue (solid content 45%, geniposide 5.5%) was extracted to generate 70g of geniposide with 98% purity and 84.8% recovery using 1500g residue.