Isolation of flavonoids from apple peel using novel graphene oxide cotton fiber.

A novel graphene oxide cotton fibre (GOF) was used to adsorb flavonoids from crude ethanol extracts derived from apple peels. Ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyse polyphenol content, and the resulting data demonstrated that GOF-based flash chromatography can be used to efficiently separate polyphenols from sugars and can facilitate the removal of 95% of the sugar content. Flavonoids can be easily separated from phenolic acids. Chalcones and flavonols were eluted with 100% methanol and subsequently flavan-3-ols can be eluted with 0.04 M sodium hydroxide. The novel GOF has the potential to be used in the isolation of flavonoids.