Recovery of clavulanic acid from an aqueous two-phase system by ion-exchange resin

Abstract

A study was made of the process of clavulanic acid extraction from filtered fermentation broth by an aqueous twophase system and recovery of the clavulanic acid by ion-exchange resin. The extraction experiments were carried out using a polyethylene glycol (PEG)/potassium phosphate aqueous system at pH of 6.0 and a PEG molecular weight of 600 or 6000. After the extraction, the antibiotic-rich PEG phase (light) solution was re-extracted with ion-exchange resin (Amberlite IRA-400). This paper discusses the conditions, procedure and results obtained in the process of clavulanic acid extraction and purification. Each step of the process proposed here was evaluated from the standpoint of yield (Y), partition coefficient (Kp), losses by decomposition of clavulanic acid (D). The results indicated a recovery of clavulanic acid varying from 50 to 80, Kp varying from 2 to 5, and D varying from 18 to 76%. In conclusion, clavulanic acid was extracted from fermentation broth into the PEG phase of a twophase aqueous system, from which it was re-extracted by ion-exchange resin in a column. The results confirm the viability of this two-stage metohod