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Gradient elution method in centrifugal partition chromatography for the separation of a complex sophorolipid mixture obtained from C andida bombicola yeasts
Author(s) -
Kotland Alexis,
Hadef Imane,
Renault JeanHugues,
Hamzaoui Mahmoud,
Martinez Agathe,
Borie Nicolas,
Guilleret Arnaud,
Reynaud Romain,
Hubert Jane
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.201201033
Subject(s) - chromatography , elution , chemistry , partition coefficient , fermentation , solvent , methanol , ethyl acetate , yeast , organic chemistry , biochemistry
Sophorolipids represent an important class of natural surfactants with a variety of environmental, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical applications. Despite their promising physicochemical and biological properties, the use of sophorolipids is hampered by the lack of information regarding their individual structure‐activity relationships. The major difficulty in isolating pure sophorolipids arises from the high complexity of crude fermentation media composition and from their strong structural similarities. In this work, a centrifugal partition chromatography method was developed in an original gradient elution mode for the separation of sophorolipids produced by the yeast C andida bombicola . Experiments were realized by using three sets of solvent systems composed of n‐ heptane, ethyl acetate, n‐ butanol, methanol, and water in different proportions. The separation was performed at 5 mL/min in the ascending mode by increasing progressively the polarity of the organic mobile phase. In these conditions, more than 80% of the sophorolipids present in the initial crude fermentation extract were eluted successively from the most hydrophobic lactone forms to the most hydrophilic acid forms. The structures of the isolated sophorolipids were further elucidated by HPLC and NMR analyses.