Solid state fermentation of pomegranate husk: Recovery of ellagic acid by SEC and identification of ellagitannins by HPLC/ESI/MS

2, 3, 7, 8-Tetrahydroxy-chromeno [5, 4, 3-cde] chromene-5, 10-dione, commonly named ellagic acid was successfully separated by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) from pomegranate husk ellagitannins purified by solid-state fermentation. Recovery of metabolites from fermented mash was carried out by the addition of ethanol and manual pressing. Culture extracts were loaded on a Sephadex LH-20 column, three fractions were separated, and second fraction was identified and evaluated by high performance liquid chromatography followed by electro spray ionization and mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI/MS). It was possible to obtain a yield of 47 mg/g of pomegranate husk polyphenols. The analysis of HPLC/ESI/MS allowed to identify punicalagin (1082.97 m/z), punicalin (780.99 m/z) and ellagic acid (300.80 m/z). After the fermentation process, the main compound was ellagic acid. The present study describes a rapid and effective fermentation/chromatographic separation process for ellagic acid production.