Automated technology for purification of active ingredients in natural products

描述(申请人提供)：复杂的天然混合物的分析在CAM和其他涉及天然产品和其他复杂生物/化学样品的生物医学研究中提出了重大的科学挑战，特别是当需要提纯次要成分时。由于其高的负载能力和选择性，使得逆流色谱在天然产物研究中成为一种有价值的工具。CCC是一种不含固体吸附剂的低压分离技术，可提供温和的分馏和100%的样品回收。此外，它对消耗品的节约使用使CCC在环境和财政方面都非常经济。不幸的是，使用CCC技术可能具有挑战性，因为它涉及多组件系统的手动操作。要成功地使用CCC，需要经过专门的培训和丰富的经验。自动化，就像它对许多其他技术所做的那样，可以有效地减轻这一负担。然而，到目前为止，其专栏的动态性质带来的挑战阻碍了这种发展。该STTR项目的第一阶段将通过(1)探索典型CCC仪器的液体固定相损失，(2)考虑所需电子设备和传感的成本和收益，然后(3)构建用于测试最终可行性的有效设备，来应对这些挑战。基于这些结果，该项目的长期目标和最终的适销对路的产品将是一个功能齐全的按钮CCC控制器。这样的机器不仅将为受过最低培训的用户提供CCC的完全分离能力，而且还将显著增强经验丰富的用户当前可用的能力。自动化的CCC将为NIH的目标做出重大贡献，进一步提高生物医学研究人员治疗人类疾病的能力。具体地说，该项目的成功将通过将其应用于提纯和研究常用膳食补充剂中存在的生物活性植物化学物质来证明，这些植物化学物质在防治结核病方面表现出了希望。 与公共卫生相关：对天然物质进行有效的化学分离是生物医学研究的基本部分。拟议的项目旨在进一步开发这项技术，使其更加实用、高效、易于使用和经济。这一结果将使研究人员更好地获得他们所需的材料，提高他们的生产率，从而更快地发现有利于人类健康的化学物质。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The analysis of complex natural mixtures presents a significant scientific challenge in CAM and other biomedical studies involving natural products and other complex bio/chemical samples, particularly when the need for purification of minor constituents arises. For this reason, its high loading capacity and selectivity has made countercurrent chromatography (CCC) a valuable tool in natural products research. CCC is a low-pressure separation technique, free of solid adsorbents, which provides gentle fractionation along with 100% sample recovery. Further, its frugal use of consumables makes CCC highly economical, both environmentally and fiscally. Unfortunately, utilizing CCC technology can be challenging, as it involves the manual operation of a multi-component system. Successful use of CCC requires specialized training and considerable experience. Automation, as it has for many other technologies, could effectively mitigate this burden. However, to date, challenges imposed by the dynamic nature of its column has prevented such development. Phase I of this STTR project will address these challenges by (1) exploring liquid stationary phase loss of typical CCC instruments, (2) considering the costs and benefits of required electronics and sensing, then (3) constructing an effective apparatus for testing ultimate feasibility. Based on these results, the long-term objective of this project and the ultimate marketable product will be a fully functional push-button CCC controller. Such a machine will not only provide the full separation power of CCC to minimally trained users, but also significantly enhance current capabilities available to experienced users. Automated CCC will provide a significant contribution to the goals of NIH, furthering the capabilities of biomedical researchers in their search to cure human disease. Specifically, the success of this project will be demonstrated by its application to the purification and study of bioactive phytochemicals present in commonly used dietary supplements and that show promise in the fight against tuberculosis. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Effective chemical separation of natural materials is a fundamental part of biomedical research. The proposed project aims to further develop this technology, making it more functional, efficient, easy to use, and economical. The result will provide researchers with improved access to the materials they require, increasing their productivity, and therefore providing faster discovery of chemistry with benefits for human health.