Advances in the preparative liquid chromatography of bioactive phytochemicals

Recent advances in the preparative chromatography of proteins, peptides, nucleic acids, and other high molecular weight products of biotechnology have received much attention and have greatly affected a wide spectrum of applications with direct impact on mankind, from their consequences to human health to their effect on the stock market. Lesser reported are the advances in preparative chromatography of bioactive phytochemicals. This review provides an overview of advances in instrumentation, media, techniques, and applications of the preparative chromatography of natural products which exhibit known biological activity and which are derived from plants. This area of biotechnology will play an increasingly important role in the cost-efficient and environmentally acceptable manufacture of new pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Focusing on preparative column-liquid, and liquid-liquid chromatography technologies, the review outlines aspects of flash chromatography, and low, medium, and high pressure/high performance chromatography as well as high speed countercurrent chromatography as applied to the purification of bioactive phytochemicals.