Counter-current chromatography for the separation of terpenoids: A comprehensive review with respect to the solvent systems employed

Copyright @ 2014 The Authors.This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.Natural products extracts are commonly highly complex mixtures of active compounds and consequently their purification becomes a particularly challenging task. The development of a purification protocol to extract a single active component from the many hundreds that are often present in the mixture is something that can take months or even years to achieve, thus it is important for the natural product chemist to have, at their disposal, a broad range of diverse purification techniques. Counter-current chromatography (CCC) is one such separation technique utilising two immiscible phases, one as the stationary phase (retained in a spinning coil by centrifugal forces) and the second as the mobile phase. The method benefits from a number of advantages when compared with the more traditional liquid-solid separation methods, such as no irreversible adsorption, total recovery of the injected sample, minimal tailing of peaks, low risk of sample denaturation, the ability to accept particulates, and a low solvent consumption. The selection of an appropriate two-phase solvent system is critical to the running of CCC since this is both the mobile and the stationary phase of the system. However, this is also by far the most time consuming aspect of the technique and the one that most inhibits its general take-up. In recent years, numerous natural product purifications have been published using CCC from almost every country across the globe. Many of these papers are devoted to terpenoids-one of the most diverse groups. Naturally occurring terpenoids provide opportunities to discover new drugs but many of them are available at very low levels in nature and a huge number of them still remain unexplored. The collective knowledge on performing successful CCC separations of terpenoids has been gathered and reviewed by the authors, in order to create a comprehensive document that will be of great assistance in performing future purifications. © 2014 The Author(s)

Composition of Leaf and Rhizome Essential Oils of Hedychium coronarium Koen. from Brazil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Hydrodistillation of fresh leaves and rhizomes of Hedychium coronarium collected in the Atlantic rain forest of southeastern Brazil afforded essential oils in 0.68% and 0.20% yields, respectively. Analysis of the oils by GC and GC/MS revealed as predominant constituents in the leaf oil beta-caryophyllene (43.0%), caryophyllene oxide (12.1%) and beta-pinene (11.6%,), whereas 1,8-cineole (34.8%), beta-pinene (16.7%) and alpha-terpineol (13.1%) were the major components identified in the rhizome oil.224305306Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Seasonal Variation of the Volatile Constituents from Leaves of Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus (Gomes)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)The chemical variation of volatile constituents from leaves of Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus collected bimonthly for one year from a locality in the Atlantic Rain Forest, southeastern Brazil, was determined by GC/MS. Seven compounds were identified and characterized, revealing a predominance of phenylpropanoids (15.4-70.9%) and variable amounts of monoterpenes (0.5-5.3%). The composition of the oil changed month by month. The best yield of oil was obtained in November, and the major component chavibetol was present in all samples (50.2-70.9%). The chavibetol content showed significant seasonal variation, with the maximum percentages of 69.1% and 70.9% measured in January and November, respectively.2345457Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundacao AraucariaCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq