Abstract
The separation and purification process of alkaloids faces great challenges of pollution, high energy consumption and low continuity. In this study, the effects of ceramic microfiltration (MF) membrane (membrane pore size of 0.50 μm, 0.20 μm, 0.05 μm) and organic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane (membrane molecular weight cut-off of 10 KDa and 1 KDa) on the separation and purification of Caulis sinomenii extract solution in pilot scale were studied. The cleaning effects of different cleaning methods (pure water, 1% HCl-NaOH, 1% sodium hypochlorite) were investigated. The experimental results indicated that 0.05 μm ceramic membrane and 1 kDa UF membrane have higher sinomenine hydrochloride (SH) permeabilities and total solids (TS) removal rates. The ceramic membrane was circulating cleaned by 1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 1 h; the membrane flux can be restored to more than 90% of the original, the membrane flux of 1 kDa UF membrane can be restored to 99.2% of the original by pure water washing. From the above study, the optimal technic parameters was determined in which 0.05 μm ceramic MF membrane and 1 kDa UF membrane were used to separate and purify the Caulis sinomenii extract solution to remove the invalid ingredients, and the two kinds of membranes were cleaned with 1% sodium hypochlorite solution and pure water, respectively, to keep satisfactory membrane fluxes. The study provided an environment-friendly alternative for the separation and purification of alkaloids in natural products, which has a good prospect for the industrial application.
Highlights
There are many problems in The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry which need urgent solutions, such as complicated process, time consuming, high energy consumption, consumption of toxic reagents and so on
In the extraction process of Caulis sinomenii, due to the large amount of medicinal materials used in one test, even for the same batch of medicinal materials, the quality of medicinal materials in each package has difference, resulting in higher RSD value
The 0.05 μm ceramic membrane was selected to study the effect of different transmembrane press (TMP) and flow rate on the filtration of Caulis sinomenii extract solution
Summary
There are many problems in The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry which need urgent solutions, such as complicated process, time consuming, high energy consumption, consumption of toxic reagents and so on. Membrane separation technology can retain effective components and remove ineffective components by selecting membrane pore size and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO). It has the advantages of high efficiency, no phase changes, low energy consumption and convenient operation [4]. UF membrane can generally retain more than 90% of the substances with relative molecular weight of 1000–300,000 Da, and can separate macromolecular organics (such as proteins, bacteria), colloids, suspended solids, etc. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China has proposed in The guidance catalogue of industrial structure adjustment (2019 edition) to encourage the development and application of membrane separation technology in the process of drug production, the development and application of energy saving and emissions reduction technology in the production of API, new technology for quality control of TCM and process technology of modern dosage forms of TCM to solve the above problems. There is a need to produce high efficiency extraction equipment and continuous production technology and equipment
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