Supercritical Fluid Chromatography in Natural Product Analysis – An Update

Abstract

The wide chemical diversity of natural products has challenged analysts all over the world and has been a driving force for the development of innovative technologies since decades. In the last years, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has finally emerged from the shadow of liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) and has become a powerful tool in modern natural product analysis. Whereas in the past the technique had mainly been restricted to a small group of nonpolar compounds, it has largely expanded its suitability in the last years and has demonstrated possibilities without boundaries. This mini-review, focused on the latest applications, provides a brief update on the current status of SFC in natural product analysis with the aim to demonstrate its applicability for both polar and nonpolar plant constituents. The approaches cover the whole range of polarity, including carotenoids, flavonoids, water-unstable ginkgolides, and even highly polar triterpene saponins with several sugar residues.

Towards eco‐friendly secondary plant metabolite quantitation: Ultra high performance supercritical fluid chromatography applied to common vervain (Verbena officinalis L.)

“…As a result, high flow rates can be applied without significant loss of chromatographic efficiency, and sub-2 µm particles columns can be used without generation of excessive pressure [9][10][11][12]. Consequently, UHPSFC has increasingly developed to a valuable alternative to organic solvent based reversed phase chromatography in modern natural product analysis [13][14][15]. The main potential of UHPSFC is seen as analytical alternative for the assessment of nonpolar and moderate polar plant constituent; its applicability to more polar compounds is still less researched [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…Consequently, UHPSFC has increasingly developed to a valuable alternative to organic solvent based reversed phase chromatography in modern natural product analysis [13][14][15]. The main potential of UHPSFC is seen as analytical alternative for the assessment of nonpolar and moderate polar plant constituent; its applicability to more polar compounds is still less researched [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. A second limitation in current literature is the focus of most validated, quantitative applications on single secondary metabolite classes.…”

Assessment of Repeatability in Supercritical Fluid Chromatography with Electrochemical Detection Based on the ISO 11843 Part 7

“…2) SFC can be achieved quickly and with high-resolution separation when compared with HPLC separations because the diffusion of solutes in the supercritical fluids is about 10 times greater than that in liquids. 2) Thus, SFC is now commonly and widely used to perform chiral and/or achiral separations and purifications for the analysis of agrichemicals, [3][4][5] drugs, 6,7) foods, [8][9][10] flavors, 11) fossil fuels, 12) and natural products. 13) In the analysis of the above-mentioned fields, the development of a suitable SFC method with satisfactory precision is significant to the obtaining of reliable results.…”

“…2) Thus, SFC is now commonly and widely used to perform chiral and/or achiral separations and purifications for the analysis of agrichemicals, [3][4][5] drugs, 6,7) foods, [8][9][10] flavors, 11) fossil fuels, 12) and natural products. 13) In the analysis of the above-mentioned fields, the development of a suitable SFC method with satisfactory precision is significant to the obtaining of reliable results. However, it is difficult to develop an optimal SFC system compared with an HPLC system by following reasons: (1) Construction of an SFC system is complicated because a pump for modifier solvent delivery and a back-pressure regulator to maintain the desired pressure in the system are required in addition to a system of flow analysis such as HPLC.…”

Identification of Triterpenes and β-sitosterol in the Bark of Plane Tree Extracts

“…However, capillary SFC has stability problems. In the modern SFC methods, often referred to as convergence chromatography or SFx chromatography as well, packed columns are used [30,31].…”