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Development of the protocol for purification of artemisinin based on combination of commercial and computationally designed adsorbents
Author(s) -
Piletska Elena V.,
Karim Kal,
Cutler Malcolm,
Piletsky Sergey A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of separation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.72
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1615-9314
pISSN - 1615-9306
DOI - 10.1002/jssc.201200520
Subject(s) - artemisinin , chromatography , chemistry , artemisia annua , adsorption , plasmodium falciparum , organic chemistry , malaria , immunology , biology
A polymeric adsorbent for extraction of the antimalarial drug artemisinin from A rtemisia annua L . was computationally designed. This polymer demonstrated a high capacity for artemisinin (120 mg g −1 ), quantitative recovery (87%) and was found to be an effective material for purification of artemisinin from complex plant matrix. The artemisinin quantification was conducted using an optimised HPLC ‐ MS protocol, which was characterised by high precision and linearity in the concentration range between 0.05 and 2 μg mL −1 . Optimisation of the purification protocol also involved screening of commercial adsorbents for the removal of waxes and other interfering natural compounds, which inhibit the crystallisation of artemisinin. As a result of a two step‐purification protocol crystals of artemisinin were obtained, and artemisinin purity was evaluated as 75%. By performing the second stage of purification twice, the purity of artemisinin can be further improved to 99%. The developed protocol produced high‐purity artemisinin using only a few purification steps that makes it suitable for large scale industrial manufacturing process.