CHAPTER 9. Isolation and Purification of Natural Products

Abstract

Isolation and purification of compounds from natural products is the most important step for molecule structure identification, bioactivity test, quantity control of natural products and further industrial production. However, the isolation and purification of natural products is laborious and difficult, because they usually are complex in matrix, the active compounds usually are present in low content and can be thermolabile, etc. For these reasons, selection of appropriate techniques and approaches is essential for getting the target compounds at high yield. Over the past decades, many types of novel isolation and purification techniques, such as membrane filtration, preparative high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), counter‐current chromatography (CCC), supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), etc., have been introduced and investigated. However, it must be stressed that none of these techniques provides by itself a comprehensive solution to all separation problems and the best approach is usually to employ a combination of different techniques. This chapter will present the techniques for the isolation and purification of natural products. Some case studies will be used to illustrate the isolation strategies for obtaining target compounds from various types of natural products.