Process Biochemistry, Vol.47, No.2, 331-334, 2012
Evaluation of adsorbents for separation and purification of paclitaxel from plant cell cultures
In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of different adsorbents for the removal of plant-derived impurities during the pre-purification of paclitaxel from plant cell cultures. Using the synthetic adsorbents sylopute and active clay and their major components SiO2 and MgO. we performed adsorbent treatment and analyzed the paclitaxel precipitates recovered from hexane precipitation. When SiO2 was used, the highest purity (similar to 58.1%) and yield (similar to 91.5%) of paclitaxel were obtained. We also determined differences in the effectiveness of the adsorbent treatment according to changes in the surface area, pore volume and pore diameter of SiO2. Adsorbent treatment was more effective when pore diameter was larger (silica I [2.19 nm]