Chapters authored
Green Separation of Bioactive Natural Products Using Liquefied Mixture of Solids
Bioactive natural products are secondary metabolites of plants and animals generated through various biological pathways. They are the main sources of new drugs, functional food and food additives. Since their contents in plant and animal tissues are extremely small compared to those of primary metabolites, the separations of bioactive principles from complex matrixes are often the inherent bottleneck in the utilization of bioactive natural products. A novel separation technique based on a liquefied mixture of solids at its eutectic compositions is presented in this chapter. The mixture can be prepared from natural primary metabolites and therefore can be considered as a green solvent. The separation of bioactive compounds (γ-oryzanol) from rice bran oil-based biodiesel using green methods with minimum energy requirement is discussed. Other applications for separations of alkaloid and phenolic compounds from their plant matrices are also presented. Different raw materials require different separation techniques due to the presence of different impurities, and the current trend is to use green methods with minimum energy requirement. This overview of recent technological advances, discussion of pertinent problems and prospect of current methodologies in the separation of bioactive natural products may provide a driving force for the development of novel separation techniques.
Part of the book: Green Chemistry