RECOVERY AND PURIFICATION OF PACLITAXEL USING LOW-PRESSURE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

An efficient and economical low-pressure liquid chromatography process has been developed for paclitaxel recovery and purification directly from plant-tissue culture (PTC) broth. PTC broth is first diluted with ethanol to ensure paclitaxel dissolution and then passed through a co lumn packed with a high-capacity polystyrene divinyl-benzene sorbent. A step increase in ethanol concentration in the mobile phase (ethanol: water) is used to concentrate and compress the taxane bands to as high as 29-fold of influent concentrations (about 1 mg/L). A recycle techn ique is then used to separate the concentrated paclitaxel band from ot her taxane bands, achieving 95% purity with more than 90% recovery and 99% purity with more than 80% recovery. In this process, the same low -pressure columns are used to capture, concentrate and purify paclitax el. Theoretical predictions agree closely with the stepwise elution an d recycle chromatography data. After validation simulations are used t o explore various design and operating alternatives. Analysis of the a lternatives shows that the process cost can be further reduced by usin g higher feed concentration, larger loading volume, smaller particle s ize, and optimal gradient and recycle strategies.