Preparative purification of erythromycin A ， B and C from erythromycin by High Speed Countercurrent Chromatography

03/20/2008

A preparative purification of the erythromycin A, B and C in erythromycin which is based on high speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) has been described by R&D Department of Shanghai Tauto Biotech Co., Ltd. and Chemical Engineering Research Center of E ast China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) .

They used samples of erythromycin (erythromycin A ＞ 88%) resulting from a fermentation broth and a biphasic solvent system consisting of hexane/ ethyl acetate/ methanol/ Water (4:6:5:6). The separation is performed by Tauto's semi-preparative HSCCC TBE-300B.

Ultraviolet/visible spectra along with elution time in Reverse -phase High-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) is used for determination of the separated. erythromycins.

Using HSCCC, the researchers were able to separate the erythromycin A (Purity 99%), erythromycin B (Purity 99%) and erythromycin C (Purity99%) which were eluted in different fractions in accordance with their structural characteristics.

This work demonstrates the feasibility of Tauto's HSCCC instrument for the purification of fermentation-derived erythromycin A from its structurally and chemically similar analogues.