steroidal sapogenins separation

[vestelshirley]

I have been trying c18 column with meoh/water (80:20) and some other similar mobile phases with no luck on separating the steroidal sapogenins extracted from a nut. I have a reference by Hunter and another by JT Lin where they use Acetonitrile/Hexane/THF but no relative amounts are listed. I need to separate about 4 or 5 compounds that closely elute with the meoh/h2o mobile phase. Might anyone have a clue as to what relative amounts of the above-mentioned cocktail are?

[Uwe Neue]

I have no clue about the relative amounts. On the other hand, if you are looking also for suggestions on a better separation method, I would throw some THF into the mobile phase or even completely replace the MeOH. You will definitely get a different elution pattern.

[vestelshirley]

Uwe,
Thanks for your reply. I tried methanol/water 40/60 and had several c18 columns on hand, so I linked three in series 450 mm and ran a 0.2 mL/min flow and got ok separation.