Organic acids separation techniques

IsocUric Acid. Isocitric acid is not separated from citric acid on standard chromatograms of organic acids. Special techniques have been described for the paper chromatographic separation of these two acids (CIO, P7), but they do not seem to have been applied to biological fluids. 

The downstream domain of the microbial production of FA has imposed a major economical barrier to entry into commercial trade for this multifaceted organic acid. As compared to the well-established downstream strategies for different fermented organic acids such as lactic acid, succinic acid, and citric acid, separation techniques for FA from the fermented broth have not met the conditions for scaling up in both economical and technical aspects. 

Both IC and CE are separation techniques used to examine aqueous samples for anions, cations and trace levels of organic acids. CE produces separations by a different mechanism than IC, and produces sharper peaks. Therefore, CE can easily perform some separations that are difficult by IC. The determination of inorganic anions by IC and CE was compared [841],... 

Isolation of the feeding factor for M. sexta was a far more difficult task. Whereas 2-tridecanone is a simple, stable molecule soluble in organic solvents, the feeding factor is water soluble, occurs at trace levels in plant tissue, and is easily hydrolyzed under mild alkaline or acidic conditions with subsequent loss of biological activity. The isolation of such a compound was a formidable obstacle requiring a departure from the more classical approach of hydrolysis or chemical derivatization followed by isolation of the lipophilic product. The necessity that pure substance be isolated with retention of biological activity required some basic research in modem separation techniques to develop a suitably mild isolation strategy. 

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