title: Development of the protocol for purification of artemisinin based on combination of commercial and computationally designed adsorbents.
abstract: A polymeric adsorbent for extraction of the antimalarial drug artemisinin from Artemisia annua L. was computationally designed. This polymer demonstrated a high capacity for artemisinin (120 mg g(-1) ), quantitative recovery (87%) and was found to be an effective material for purification of artemisinin from complex plant matrix. The artemisinin quantification was conducted using an optimised HPLC-MS protocol, which was characterised by high precision and linearity in the concentration range between 0.05 and 2 μg mL(-1) . Optimisation of the purification protocol also involved screening of commercial adsorbents for the removal of waxes and other interfering natural compounds, which inhibit the crystallisation of artemisinin. As a result of a two step-purification protocol crystals of artemisinin were obtained, and artemisinin purity was evaluated as 75%. By performing the second stage of purification twice, the purity of artemisinin can be further improved to 99%. The developed protocol produced high-purity artemisinin using only a few purification steps that makes it suitable for large scale industrial manufacturing process.
authors.affiliation: Cranfield Health, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, UK. e.piletska@cranfield.ac.uk
authors.forename: Elena V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Piletska
authors.forename: Kal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karim
authors.forename: Malcolm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cutler
authors.forename: Sergey A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Piletsky
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D031172:Artemisia annua / Q000737:chemistry*; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D054802:Molecular Imprinting; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037621:Artemisinins; D010936:Plant Extracts; D011108:Polymers; C031327:artemisinin