Emerging trends in hyphenated separation techniques for the isolation of naturally occurring compounds

Natural products chemistry has been at the forefront of drug discovery since mankind first connected a plant with its effect on health. Plant-derived products can maintain human health and prevent chronic diseases. The vast diversity of the plant kingdom provides an opportunity to isolate novel phytochemicals; however, this diversity also provides technical challenges in the isolation and purification of large quantities of phytochemicals. Technologies for isolation of phytochemicals from natural products have been improved tremendously. Recent advances include promising technologies such as hyphenated liquid chromatography using a mobile gradient and ultraviolet detection. In the present study, we separated turmeric extracts on silica gel flash columns to obtain curcuminoids. The compounds were monitored at 425 nm and identified tentatively using UV spectra of each compound. This technique uses minimal volumes of organic solvents. This rapid separation and identification of bioactives from natural products will enable us to understand their biological properties.