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Liquid-liquid partition chromatography: An efficient solid support less chromatographic technique for the separation of bioactive phytomolecules.

Anupam Maurya

Phytomolecules are secondary metabolites of plants origin which have various biological activities and became a key source for the discovery of new drugs. Since the last 20 years, almost 50% of drugs directly or indirectly are derived from natural products for Human welfare. All phytomolecules, often exit as a very complex mixture from which the product of interest must be isolated and purified, but the separation of these molecules from the plants is very cumbersome. At present, the used adsorbents SiO2 and Al2O3 are not chemically inert. Separation of natural products on alumina or silica gel sometimes results in the recovery of only 70-80%. Sometimes severe losses of valuable materials occurred because of irreversible adsorption on a solid support. In addition, isolation of artifacts has also been reported due to chemical reactions of the substrates with solid phase adsorbents. Introduction of Liquid-Liquid Partition Chromatography (CCC, CPC etc.) provided a new dimension in the area of separation science, in which both stationary and mobile phases are liquid. The separation of compounds in this technique is based on their Partition Coefficient (K), the compound distributes itself between a biphasic solvent system according to their solubility. These techniques are having a large number of advantages when compared with liquid-solid separation methods. The partition chromatography is gaining popularity as a modern separation technique throughout the world. The author has successfully applied Liquid-Liquid Partition Chromatography for the separation and isolation of various phytomolecules like iridoids, nitrile glycosides, triterpenoids, alkaloids, steroidal glycosides and glycoalkaloids.