Column Chromatography As A Tool For Purification
Column Chromatography is one of the widely used techniques for carrying out the purification of drug molecules. This method allows the separation of targeted molecules from the mixture of compounds. As this method provides high accuracy, it is also used for the analysis of complex organic mixtures. Chromatography is a physical method of separation that helps in separating the components based on their distribution between two phases: stationary phase and mobile phase. The stationary phase can be in the form of a porous bed, bulk liquid or thin layer of the adsorbent and the mobile phase is the fluid that runs through the stationary phase.
The two most commonly used stationary phase are Silica gel (SiO2) and Alumina (Al2O3) which is packed in a column and mobile phase passes through this column. Silica gel is the most widely used adsorbent for carrying out phytochemical investigations. It is observed that most of the phytochemical separations use silica gel as the adsorbent and the choice of solvents for the mobile phase is dependent on the polarity of molecules that are to be separated from the mixture of compounds.
Swambe Chemicals manufactures a range of tailor-made chromatographic products to address the needs of different industries. It manufactures Silica Gel for column chromatography, Silica Gel Powder for column chromatography, and Aluminium Oxide for column chromatography. Since chromatographic purifications have gained much importance owing to their accurate results, column chromatography has become the first choice for industries like Life Sciences, API Production plants, Herbal Extraction plants, Dyes Manufacturing plants, DNA fingerprinting, Nutraceuticals, and Plant-based Nutraceuticals.
The most commonly used Adsorbents for chromatographic purifications are silica gel and aluminium oxide. Aluminium oxide as an adsorbent provides reproducible results hence they are widely used for carrying out isolation and purification of antibiotics, for carrying separations through preparative column chromatography, and, for separation and purification of dyes, organic solvents, alkaloids, steroids, lipids, amino acids, hormones, and vitamins.
Silica gel as an adsorbent showcases an excellent affinity for water, hence it can be used for carrying out the isolation and purification of a variety of molecules. Silica gel also comes with high adsorbing capacity making it a good choice for plenty of industries. Swambe Chemicals manufactures premium quality silica gel that offers the lowest moisture content, the tightest particle size distribution, and minimal impurities. Another major feature of silica gel that should be considered before it is used for chromatographic purifications is its mesh size. Swambe Chemicals manufactures silica gel in varying mesh sizes that range between 35 and 800. These are the defining features when it comes to quantifying the quality of silica gel for analyzing the desired reproducibility.
