Isoquercitrin is a flavonoid with important applications in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. However, a low yield and high production cost hinders the industrial preparation of isoquercitrin. In the present study, isoquercitrin was prepared by biotransformation of rutin using α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus niger JMU-TS528 combined with high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) purification. As a result, the optimum transformation pH, temperature, and time were pH 4.0, 60 °C, and 60 min, respectively. The Km and Vmax were 0.36 mM and 0.460 mmol/min, respectively. For isoquercitrin production, the optimal rutin concentration and transformation time were approximately 1000 mg/L and 60 min. The rutin transformation rate reached 96.44%. The isoquercitrin was purified to a purity of 97.83% using one-step purification with HSCCC. The isoquercitrin was identified using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS. The comprehensive results indicated that the biotransformation procedure using the α-L-rhamnosidase from A. niger JMU-TS528 combined with HSCCC was a simple and effective process to prepare isoquercitrin, which might facilitate the production of isoquercitrin for industrial use.
Keywords: biotransformation; high-speed countercurrent chromatography; isoquercitrin; rutin; α-L-rhamnosidase.