Preparatory Chromatography of Natural Product Extracts Utilizing an UV Based Open Access Walk-up Purification Strategy – Method Transfer from TLC to Preparatory Chromatography

Extraction of potential active medicinal compounds from plant materials is accomplished in many diverse ways. Ultimately the chemist is left with a raw extract that contains the potentially active compounds along with many other non-active constituents. Following extraction, the next logical step is purification or isolation of those compounds of interest. Preparatory liquid chromatography is often utilized to accomplish this. The diversity of compounds that may be extracted is large and an adequate purification requires access to different chromatographic methods for effective isolation. An Open Access liquid chromatography system that may have many methods available for use by walkup chemists is therefore desirable. Methods can vary in column size, run time, gradient conditions, solvents, modifiers, and other variables. These options can make it difficult for a chemist to choose the best method for their extract and delay the isolation and development of the compounds of interest. To simplify the choosing of an appropriate first try method for each chemist's extract, an Open Access system using a method filtering software is described. As well, strategies for method selection criteria will also be discussed. By using separation methods tailored to their extracts, chemists have a better ability to obtain higher purity compounds by picking a suitable method (as opposed to a single generic method for all extracts), essentially reducing the number of re-analysis and re-purification steps ultimately speeding up the entire process.