The preparative isolation of lecithin.

Lecithin can be prepared on a relatively large scale, free of colored impurities, by a simple two-column procedure. Commercial crude egg lecithin is partially purified by a single-step passage through an alumina column. It is then purified by a two-step passage through a prepacked, commercial silica gel column. The lecithin is prepared in solvent-free form for weighing by lyophilization from cyclohexane. Toxic solvents (chloroform and methanol) are avoided by the use of ethanol, isopropanol, hexane, and water. The elutions are easily monitored by a flow cell in an ordinary spectrophotometer set at 215 nm. Study of the column parameters has made it possible to use heavy loads with a relatively small column and minimal solvent.