Ionic liquids (ILs) have been proposed as promising media for the extraction and separation of bioactive compounds from the most diverse origins. This critical review offers a compilation on the main results achieved by the use of ionic-liquid-based processes in the extraction and separation/purification of a large range of bioactive compounds (including small organic extractable compounds from biomass, lipids, and other hydrophobic compounds, proteins, amino acids, nucleic acids, and pharmaceuticals). ILs have been studied as solvents, cosolvents, cosurfactants, electrolytes, and adjuvants, as well as used in the creation of IL-supported materials for separation purposes. The IL-based processes hitherto reported, such as IL-based solid–liquid extractions, IL-based liquid–liquid extractions, IL-modified materials, and IL-based crystallization approaches, are here reviewed and compared in terms of extraction and separation performance. The key accomplishments and future challenges to the field are discussed, with particular emphasis on the major lacunas found within the IL community dedicated to separation processes and by suggesting some steps to overcome the current limitations.

Aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) composed of ionic liquids (ILs) are promising platforms for the extraction and purification of proteins. In this work, a series of alternative and biocompatible ABS composed of cholinium-based ILs and polypropylene glycol were investigated. The respective ternary phase diagrams, tie-lines, tie-line lengths and critical points were determined at 25°C. The extraction performance of these systems for commercial bovine serum albumin (BSA) was then evaluated. The stability of BSA at the IL-rich phase was ascertained by size exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Appropriate ILs lead to the complete extraction of BSA for the IL-rich phase, in a single step, while maintaining the protein's native conformation. Furthermore, to evaluate the performance of these systems when applied to real matrices, the extraction of BSA from bovine serum was additionally carried out, revealing that the complete extraction of BSA was maintained and achieved in a single step. The remarkable extraction efficiencies obtained are far superior to those observed with typical polymer-based ABS. Therefore, the proposed ABS may be envisaged as a more effective and biocompatible approach for the separation and purification of other value-added proteins.

This work reports a promising approach to the development of novel self-buffering and biocompatible ionic liquids for biological research in which the anions are derived from biological buffers (Good's buffers, GB). Five Good's buffers (Tricine, TES, CHES, HEPES, and MES) were neutralized with four suitable hydroxide bases (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium, tetramethylammonium, tetraethylammonium, and tetrabutylammonium) producing 20 Good's buffer ionic liquids (GB-ILs). The presence of the buffering action of the synthesized GB-ILs was ascertained by measuring their pH-profiles in water. Moreover, a series of mixed GB-ILs with wide buffering ranges were formulated as universal buffers. The impact of GB-ILs on bovine serum albumin (BSA), here used as a model protein, is discussed and compared with more conventional ILs using spectroscopic techniques, such as infrared and dynamic light scattering. They appear to display, in general, a greater stabilizing effect on the protein secondary structure than conventional ILs. A molecular docking study was also carried out to investigate on the binding sites of GB-IL ions to BSA. We further used the QSAR-human serum albumin binding model, log K(HSA), to calculate the binding affinity of some conventional ILs/GB-ILs to HSA. The toxicity of the GB and GB-ILs was additionally evaluated revealing that they are non-toxic against Vitro fischeri. Finally, the GB-ILs were also shown to be able to form aqueous biphasic systems when combined with aqueous solutions of inorganic or organic salts, and we tested their extraction capability for BSA. These systems were able to extract BSA with an outstanding extraction efficiency of 100% in a single step for the GB-IL-rich phase, and, as a result, the use of GB-IL-based ABS for the separation and extraction of other added-value biomolecules is highly encouraging and worthy of further investigation.

In the past decade, remarkable advances in the production and use of antibodies as therapeutic drugs and in research/diagnostic fields have led to their recognition as value-added proteins. These biopharmaceuticals have become increasingly important, reinforcing the current demand for the development of more benign, scalable and cost-effective techniques for their purification. Typical polymer-polymer and polymer-salt aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) have been studied for such a goal; yet, the limited polarity range of the coexisting phases and their low selective nature still are their major drawbacks. To overcome this limitation, in this work, ABS formed by bio-based ionic liquids (ILs) and biocompatible polymers were investigated. Bio-based ILs composed of ions derived from natural sources, namely composed of the cholinium cation and anions derived from plants natural acids, have been designed, synthesized, characterized and used for the creation of ABS with polypropyleneglycol (PPG 400). The respective ternary phase diagrams were initially determined at 25 °C to infer on mixture compositions required to form aqueous systems of two phases, further applied in the extraction of pure immunoglobulin G (IgG) to identify the most promising bio-based ILs, and finally employed in the purification of IgG from complex and real matrices of rabbit serum. Remarkably, the complete extraction of IgG to the IL-rich phase was achieved in a single-step. With pure IgG a recovery yield of 100% was obtained, while with rabbit serum this value slightly decreased to ca. 85%. Nevertheless, a 58% enhancement in the IgG purity was achieved when compared with its purity in serum samples. The stability of IgG before and after extraction was also evaluated by size exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC), sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In most ABS formed by bio-based ILs, IgG maragfreire@ua.pt; Fax: +351 234370084; Tel: +351 234370200; kamlesh@csmcri.org, drkamaleshp@gmail.com; Fax: +91-278-2567562; Tel: +91-278 2567760. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Source of natural acids, NMR spectra of biobased ILs, experimental data on binodal curves, and SE-HPLC data of rabbit serum samples. See

Good's buffers ionic liquids (GB-ILs), composed of cholinium-based cations and Good's buffers anions, display self-buffering characteristics in the biological pH range, and their polarity and hydrophobicity can be easily tuned by a proper manipulation of their ions chemical structures. In this work, the extraction ability for bovine serum albumin (BSA) of aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) formed by polypropylene glycol 400 (PPG 400) and several GB-ILs was evaluated. ABS formed by PPG 400 and cholinium chloride ([Ch]Cl), GBs, and sucrose were also investigated for comparison purposes. It is shown that BSA preferentially migrates for the GB-IL-rich phase, with extraction efficiencies of 100%, achieved in a single-step. Dynamic light scattering, and circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies were employed to evaluate the effect of the investigated cholinium-based GB-ILs on the BSA stability, and compared with results obtained for the respective GBs precursors, [Ch]Cl and sucrose, a well-known protein stabilizer. Molecular docking studies were also carried out to investigate on the binding sites of GB-IL ions to BSA. The experimental results confirm that BSA has a higher stability in GB-ILs than in any of the other compounds investigated.