Preparative separation, complex alkaloid mixture

Preparative Separation of Complex Alkaloid Mixture by High-Speed Countercurrent Chromatography... 

The combination of preparative high-speed countercurrent chromatography with other separation methods, such as HPLC, and TLC, will enable chemists to isolate minor components of complex alkaloid mixtures more efficiently. This technique is not limited to alkaloid separations and, in theory, other complex mixtures of compounds having only minor differences in their partition coefficients should be efficiently separated by high-speed countercurrent chromatography. 

The methods employed for isolation of the alkaloids depend on the nature of the compounds, and specific conditions have frequently been devised for the selective isolation of particular types of compounds. Usually, fresh or dried plant material is extracted with dilute acid solution or with alcohol, and the extract obtained is further fractionated by extraction into organic solvents with variation of pH. Extraction columns (288), membrane processes (425), and ion-exchange materials (288-290) may be particularly useful for subfractionation or isolation procedures. For further identification and isolation of separate compounds, preparative thin-layer chromatography, (288, 291, 292, 426), liquid chromatography (293, 294), or gas chromatography may be used (202, 296, 297). Because some of the products reviewed in this chapter occur naturally in very small amounts, they have not been isolated in crystalline form. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (87, 213, 299), mass fragmentography (192), and mass spectrometry-mass spectrometry (301, 359) have proved to be particularly useful techniques for identification of trace alkaloids in complex mixtures. 

A total synthesis of vinblastine has not as yet been achieved. Methods of preparation involve making initial crude extracts from the periwinkle plant, followed by extraction at selected pH into organic solvents, and final separation of the complex mixture of alkaloids by column chromatography. Several methods have been devised since Noble, Beer, and Cutts1 first reported the isolation of vinblastine as the sulfate salt. A few are briefly described here. 

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