蕨藻(caulerpa)，例如：海葡萄或總狀蕨藻，內含豐富蕨藻紅素(caulerpin)，文獻指出此種物質有抗發炎、抗腫瘤、抗結核、及植物生長調節功能。本研究擬建立自幾種蕨藻經冷凍乾燥成品以超音波萃取物一套可以自動純化蕨藻紅素技術。由於目前標準品廠商皆無販售可供分析之蕨藻紅素標準品，若想發展蕨藻紅素勢必要開發出一套能夠信賴的定量分析系統，才能建立後續操作各種參數。本研究主要分為兩大部分，第一部分著重於發展一套自動化提取蕨藻紅素標準品的方法，以取代傳統的矽膠管柱純化方式以提取出天然物單一成分之方法，純化之蕨藻紅素以傅立葉紅外線光譜儀(FT-IR)、核磁共振光譜儀(NMR)、液相串聯質譜儀(LC/MS/MS)分別確認純化成品之化學構造、分子量、及純度，此方法可節省空間、人力、溶劑等耗材，既環保且相當彈性方法，本方法將來亦可用於其它天然物中單一成分無法取得標準品方法。第二部分嘗試以模擬移動床進行蕨藻紅素純化的操作參數探討，例如：管柱充填材料(C8、C18、矽膠)，移動相溶劑之種類、組成、流量，天然物萃出物之濃度、進料流量，萃取相及萃餘相流量，管柱切換時間等操作參數進行探討。以建立自動化、連續進料、及連續出料商業化生產模式。

Caulerpa, such as Coccoloba uvifera and Caulerpa racemosa, is reported to be rich in caulerpin. They have several benefits to human and plant, including anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-tuberculosis, and regulation of growth. The major goal of this study is to setup an autotechnical procedure of ultrasonic extraction and purification for effectively collecting the active ingredients (caulerpin) in several kinds of freeze dried Caulerpa powders. Additionally, there are no commercial standard solution for caulerpin analysis, and it have to be produced by a reliable process, as well as an analytical quantitation technique. This research will be accomplished by two stages. The main purpose in the first stage is to develop an auto-technical procedure for extracting the standard solution of caulerpin, and further replace the traditional extraction-purification processes for extracting a single natural ingredient by a prepacked silica gel column elution. The purified caulerpin solution were identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS) for its chemical structure, molecular weight, and purity. The above method is expected to significantly save working space, man-hour, and solvent consumption. This environmentally friendly and highly flexible procedure could become a novel method to extract the other single natural ingredient with high purity. The second part of this research try to use a simulated moving bed (SMB) system to modify and optimize the operation parameter for caulerpin extraction and purification. For example, the packing materials (C8, C18, and silica gel), solutions, their composition, and mass flowrate for mobile phase, concentration of natural extract, flowrate of feed stock, extraction, and raffinate phases, and the timing of column switching in extraction processes. Finally, an automatically continuously feeding and producing commercialized production model will be demonstrated in the end of this project.