Chromatographic purification of natural compounds presents many challenges to scientists because of the complex nature of the starting matrices that are used in the process. These starting materials can damage traditional columns and cartridges, decreasing the length of their usage and increasing costs; that is, if the particular system can even accommodate the starting material. Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC), which uses both liquid stationary and mobile phases, can handle heavily contaminated, complex starting materials, such as direct extracts from many biological sources, and has been shown useful for the isolation of piperine from Piper nigrum1, gingerol from ginger2 and hundreds of other natural compounds from plants. Additionally, by relying on a liquid stationary phase, CPC columns do not need to be replaced like traditional columns and cartridges used by preparative HPLC and flash chromatography methods.
This article will discuss the basic principles behind CPC and explore the use and benefits of CPC in the purification of cannabinoids from crude cannabis oil.
Centrifugal partition chromatography can be performed on pilot, preparative and industrial scales. Whereas both preparative and flash chromatography rely on a solid silica stationary phase, CPC is silica-free, using two immiscible liquids as stationary and mobile phases. Similar to both preparative HPLC and flash chromatography methods, the separation of the target molecule is based on its respective a9nity to the liquid phases as expressed by the partition coe9cient, KD, much as if you used a glass separatory funnel. With CPC, one phase is made stationary by centrifugal force while the other phase is pumped through the column. Molecules with greater a9nity for the mobile phase will pass through faster and elute first, while molecules with greater a9nity for the stationary phase will pass through slower and elute later. The CPC systems can work in both ascending and descending modes, which determines whether the lighter or heavier phase acts as the stationary phase on the column, respectively. These operational modes are comparable to normal phase typically used for flash chromatography and reversed phase commonly used for preparative HPLC.
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