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Rapid and accurate characterization and quantitation of blood barbiturates and their combination drugs are very important for the clinical treatment of acute barbiturate poisoning. A comparison of dried blood spot (DBS) and traditional liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) in the pre-treatment stage, as well as a comparison of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) as instrumental analysis methods, revealed differences in the analysis results of barbiturates and their combination drugs under different conditions. Based on these findings, we introduce a DBS-GC-MS/MS method. The developed and validated method showed good selectivity, sensitivity (LOD: 0.1 μg mL -1 , LOQ: 0.2 μg mL -1 ), linearity (R 2 >0.9992), trueness (<15 %, except for carbamazepine, at 29.4 %), and precision (<15 %). Recovery was also good for most target compounds, but significant matrix effects were evident. Compared with the LLE method, the DBS method has the benefits of easy sample collection, storage, and transport, as well as simple pre-treatment and reduced reagent and energy consumption. Compared to LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS requires no switching between positive and negative ion modes and uses the MRM detection mode, meaning that more information about the sample compounds can be obtained in less analysis time. Using actual sample analysis, we have demonstrated the advantages of the DBS-GC-MS/MS method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of barbiturates and poisoning events due to combinations of these drugs. Comparison of the three instruments and the two treatment methods revealed their analysis characteristics. From the perspective of practical application, the broad practical value and advantages of DBS should be embraced in more applications, and future analytical laboratory development should continue to recognize GC-MS/MS as a useful supplement to LC-MS/MS., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, lincomycin was successfully purified by macroporous adsorption resin column chromatography using the HZ3 resin. The optimal separation parameters were set as follows: the column bed height was 33 cm, sample loading capacity was 48 mg/mL and flow rate of loading was 1 mL/min. A mixture of 0.02 mol/L of Na 2 HPO 4 ∙12H 2 O (pH = 8.5, adjusted using H 3 PO 4 ) and acetone (80:20, v/v) was used as the eluent. The elution flow rate was maintained at 3 mL/min. Under these parameters, the purity of lincomycin calculated using the standard curve was 99.00 %, with the yield being 97.84 %. This enrichment and separation method of lincomycin is highly regarded owing to its remarkable efficiency and straightforward operation. Thus, the proposed method for the separation and purification of lincomycin holds considerable promise for pharmaceutical applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Aristolochic acids (AAs) naturally occurring in the herbal genus Aristolochia are associated with a high risk of kidney failure, multiple tumors and cancers. However, approaches with high selectivity and rapidity for measuring AAs in biological samples are still inadequate. Inspired by the mechanism of AAs-induced nephrotoxicity, we designed a hybrid magnetic polymer-porous agarose (denoted as MNs@SiO 2 M@DNV-A), mimicking the effect of basic and aromatic residues of organic anion transporter 1 (OAT1) for efficient enriching aristolochic acid I (AA I) and aristolochic acid II (AA II) in the plasma. The monomers of vinylbenzyl trimethylammonium chloride (VBTAC), N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NVP) and divinylbenzene (DVB) were employed to construct the polymer layer, which provided a selective adsorption for AAs by multiple interactions. The porous agarose shell contributed to remove interfering proteins in the plasma samples. A magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) based on the proposed composite enhanced the selectivity toward AA I and AA II in the plasma samples. In combination of HPLC analysis, the proposed method was proved to be applicable to fast and specific quantification of AAs in blood samples, which was characterized by a good linearity, high sensitivity, acceptable recovery, excellent repeatability and satisfactory reusability., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Herein, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) was used as a model template in a rational design strategy to produce water-compatible noncovalent imprinted microspheres. The proposed approach involved computational modelling for screening functional monomers and a simple method for preparing monodisperse and highly cross-linked microspheres. The fabricated non-imprinted polymer (NIP) and 2,4-d-imprinted polymer (2,4-d-MIP) were characterised, and their adsorption capabilities in an aqueous environment were evaluated. Results reveal that the pseudo-second-order kinetics model was appropriate for representing the adsorption of 2,4-D on NIP and 2,4-d-MIP, with R 2 values of 0.97 and 0.99, respectively. The amount of 2,4-D adsorbed on 2,4-d-MIP (97.75 mg g -1 ) was considerably higher than those of phenoxyacetic acid (35.77 mg g -1 ), chlorogenic acid (9.72 mg g -1 ), spiramycin (1.56 mg g -1 ) and tylosin (1.67 mg g -1 ). Furthermore, it exhibited strong resistance to protein adsorption in an aqueous medium. These findings confirmed the feasibility of the proposed approach, providing a reference for the development of water-compatible noncovalent imprinted polymers., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In order to predict how mAbs partition in 20% ethylene oxide/80% propylene oxide (v/v) random copolymer (EO 20 PO 80 )/water aqueous two-phase system (ATPS), a molecular dynamic simulation model was developed using Gromacs and then validated by experiments. The ATPS was applied with seven kinds of salt, including buffer salt and strong dissociation salt that were commonly employed in the purification of protein. Na 2 SO 4 was shown to have the best effects on lowering EO 20 PO 80 content in the aqueous phase and enhancing recovery. The content of EO 20 PO 80 in the sample solution was decreased to 0.62%±0.25% and the recovery of rituximab increased to 97.88%±0.95% by adding 300 mM Na 2 SO 4 into back extraction ATPS. The viability determined by ELISA was 95.57% at the same time. A strategy for constructing a prediction model for the distribution of mAbs in ATPS was proposed in consideration of this finding. Partition of trastuzumab in ATPS was predicted by the model created using this method and the prediction result was further validated by experiments. The recovery of trastuzumab reached 95.63%±2.86% under the ideal extraction conditions suggested by the prediction model., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) are detrimental to public health owing to their carcinogenicity and mutagenesis. Fast and reliable determination of DBPs is essential for ascertaining their formation, characteristics, and occurrence. This study reported an automated headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) method for quantifying typical nitrogenous-DBPs, including haloacetonitriles (HANs), trichloronitromethane, and trihalomethanes (THMs). The analysis was further optimized by selecting SPME fiber coatings, extraction/desorption time and temperature, and salt addition. The optimized method examined the occurrence and stability of the selected DBPs in aqueous samples under different preservation conditions and showed good sensitivity (limit of detection: 0.010-0.320 µg/L) and precision. Most THMs and HANs with high recovery were preserved in ultrapure water under dark and low-temperature conditions. However, real samples exhibited greater analytical biases due to comprehensive effects of photochemistry, biochemistry, and physiochemistry. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that tested samples should be preserved in a frozen state and analyzed within three days., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Polystyrene (PS) microsphere is a kind of attractive extracting medium due to its high stability in different matrices and its particle size can be controlled. The attachment of amphiphilic copolymers to the PS microsphere surface can overcome the drawback of PS relevant to its hydrophobic nature and low wettability. In our previous work, the magnetic composite based on PS microsphere (5 µm) and poly (divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone, DVB-co-NVP) shell was successfully fabricated and applied for the extraction of safrole in cola drinks. However, the large size and ease of sedimentation limited its application in the enrichment of safrole from blood samples. Considering the adjustability of PS microsphere size, we synthesized the porous PS microspheres with the uniform size of 3 µm and then functionalized with Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and poly (DVB-co-NVP) layer in this work. Using the proposed material as extraction sorbent, a simple and fast magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) method coupled with HPLC was developed for quantification of safrole in the plasma. Under the optimized conditions, the response to safrole was linear in the range of 0.02-12 µg mL -1 , and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.006 µg mL -1 . Satisfactory recoveries were obtained between 85.67% and 97.74% (spiked at 0.05, 0.2, 2 µg mL -1 ) and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) for the above spiked levels of the analyte were below 3.9% (n = 6). The adsorbent can be reused for 6 cycles without a significant loss of extraction capability., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The conversion of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to porous carbon has attracted extensive attention for developing multifunctional adsorbent materials. Herein, we demonstrated a facile method to prepare magnetic porous carbon via calcinating MIL-101(Fe) precursor loaded with glucose at 700 °C in an N 2 atmosphere. The obtained magnetic porous carbon (MPCG) contained plenty of oxygen-containing functional groups and exhibited an enlarged specific surface area (177.7 m 2 /g) compared with its precursor (41.2 m 2 /g). In addition, MPCG can be easily separated from the matrix by a magnet. Benefitting from these advantages, the magnetic porous carbon exhibited high affinity toward four synthetic organic dyes (amaranth, ponceau 4R, sunset yellow, and lemon yellow) in an aqueous solution. Moreover, the adsorbent can be applied to quantitatively detect synthetic organic dyes in drinks coupled with chromatography. A new magnetic solid-phase extraction method for dye analysis yielded reasonable linearity (r □ 0.99), low limits of detection (0.047-0.076 μg/L), and good precision within the analyte concentration range of 0.25-50 μg/L., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

As an important natural product, the sufficient separation of plant essential oil (EO) is helpful to improve its utilization value. In this work, deep eutectic solvent-homogenate based microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (DES-HMAHD) was developed and applied to isolate EO from the fruits of Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. Different types of DES were investigated in terms of the EO kinetics and composition, among which oxalic acid/choline chloride (OA/ChCl) had obvious advantages. Following, molar ratio of OA and ChCl (1:1), water content (50%), liquid-solid ratio (12.5:1 mL/g), homogenate time (2 min), and microwave power (700 W) were found to be the optimum conditions. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) analysis showed that the EO isolated from DES-HMAHD contained a large proportion of m-cymene and trans-linalool oxide, which were quite different from the conventionally reported L. cubeba EO. In addition, the proposed DES-HMAHD resulted in higher separation efficiency and economic value, as well as lower environmental impact, as compared with other techniques. Afterwards, the EO isolated by different methods was evaluated from the perspective of biological activity. The EO obtained by DES-HMAHD showed higher antioxidant activity (DPPH and ABTS) but lower antifungal activity, which was related to its chemical composition. In general, DES-HMAHD produced a kind of L. cubeba EO with different components, which provided a scientific foundation for the sufficient isolation of plant EO and its application in the natural products., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In this research, in order to separate and purify diol-containing macrolide antibiotics, like tylosin, from complex biological samples, molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) based on boronate affinity for tylosin was synthesized by using precipitation polymerization method with 4-vinylphenylboronic acid (VPBA) and dimethyl aminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) as pH-responsive functional monomers, and N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBAA)/ ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the co-crosslinkers that balance the hydrophobicity of the MIP. The synthesized tylosin-MIP had the advantages of high adsorption capacity (120 mg/g), fast pH-responsiveness responsible for the accessibility of imprinted cavities, and high selectivity coefficient towards tylosin versus its analogues (2.8 versus spiramycin, 7.3 versus desmycosin) in an aqueous environment. The mechanism of boronate affinity between tylosin and VPBA in the form of charged hydrogen bonding was analyzed via density functional theory (DFT). MIPs were used to successfully separate diol-containing macrolides through molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE). The results show that MIPs prepared in this method have a good application prospect in the separation and purification of the diol-containing macrolide antibiotics., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ferulic acid stereoisomers are the most abundant phenolic acids in cereal bran. However, it is challenging to separate them because of the similar structures and properties. In this study, a preparative separation method of ferulic acid stereoisomers from the crude extract of wheat bran was successfully developed. The method contained a two-step separation, the traditional counter-current chromatography (CCC, hexane: ethyl acetate: methanol: water = 2:5:2:4) was followed with a pH-zone-refining CCC (hexane: ethyl acetate: acetonitrile: water = 2:5:2:2, 10 mmol L -1 trifluoroacetic acid in organic stationary phase and 10 mmol L -1 ammonia in aqueous mobile phase). Trans-ferulic acid and cis-ferulic acid with HPLC high purity over than 99% and 98% can be yielded in large-scale separation. Moreover, it is found that different proton affinity, deprotonation ability and interaction site of hydrogen bond result in distinct partition behavior of stereoisomers, which is illustrated by quantitative analysis of molecular surface. This contributes to our in-depth understanding of the separation mechanism toward pH-zone refining CCC. The developed method can be applied in the exploitation of ferulic acids and related phenolic acids from other resources., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, the magnetic flower-like molybdenum disulfide hybrid materials (Fe 3 O 4 /MoS 2 ) were successfully synthesized by in-situ fabrication method and utilized in the magnetic solid-phase extraction of organophosphorus pesticides. Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles with different loading amounts of MoS 2 were evaluated and detail characterized. The results showed that MoS 2 played a key role with rapid and high adsorption capacity towards organophosphorus pesticides. The higher extraction efficiency and good magnetic performance were obtained with loading amount of 200 mg MoS 2 . Fe 3 O 4 was attached on the surface of MoS 2 with flower-like shape (500 nm in diameter). The parameters (amounts of adsorbents, adsorption time, solution pH, elution solvents and sample volumes) affecting magnetic solid-phase extraction efficiency were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, magnetic solid-phase extraction coupled with high liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for analyzing organophosphorus pesticides in environmental water samples was established. All the analytes exhibited good recoveries spiked at three different concentration levels (10, 20, 50 ng/mL) in water samples. The relative standard deviations were between 1.4% and 6.8%. The developed method showed high sensitivity and good potential use of this convenient and high efficient method for determining organophosphorus pesticides. More importantly, this study can provide a new magnetic adsorbent with extremely fast mass transfer rate for other potential trace contaminants., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are high nutritional components. Evidence for unique effects of them is increasing. Further understanding of their independent biological functions urgently needs more efficient separation techniques. Nowadays, most of the commercially available fish oil products are the mixture of eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester (EPAEE) and docosahexaenoic acid ethyl ester (DHAEE). It will be convenient to directly separate esterified EPA and DHA without saponification pretreatment. However, it is of great challenge to separate EPAEE and DHAEE because of their extremely fat-soluble nature and the equivalent chain length rule. In this research, the suitability of green guanidinium ionic liquid (IL) in countercurrent chromatography (CCC) solvent system for the separation of them was evaluated for the first time. Compared with imidazolium IL and phosphonium IL, guanidinium IL based non-aqueous biphasic system showed more outstanding separation performance. The separation mechanism was elucidated in depth through quantum mechanical calculations. It was found that guanidinium IL acted a crucial role in the CCC separation, which resulted in difference of partition behavior of EPAEE and DHAEE via different hydrogen-bonding affinity. EPAEE and DHAEE were successfully separated by solvent system (n-heptane/methanol/propylguanidinium chloride ([C 3 Gun]Cl, 1:1:5%, v/v/m)) with high purity (>95%) in one step, which was not achieved beforehand. Moreover, an easy recycling procedure of IL had also been devised, which significantly reduced waste generated. It opens up a new way for reasonable design water-free two-phase solvent system for efficient separation of very non-polar lipid compounds., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interests The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The main problem of poor water compatibility of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) has been addressed in this study. A new facile and highly efficient approach was developed to obtain well-defined hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymer microsphere with excellent specific recognition ability toward Chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) in crude bile. Particularly, it involved computational modeling to obtain a polymer network with high affinity for CDCA and addition of a hydrophilic crosslinker (polyethylene glycol (PEG) diacrylate∼200) to increase the hydrophilicity of the polymer surface. To our knowledge, this study first report splitting method in molecular imprinting technology. By using the splitting method, simulation time can be saved under the premise of ensuring accuracy. The adsorption experiments revealed that an optimized CDCA-MIP exhibited better selectivity toward CDCA with inhibition of the nonspecific adsorption. The CDCA-MIP possessed adsorption capacity of 49.86 mg g -1 for CDCA and the imprinting factor was 2.72. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) using the prepared CDCA-MIP as adsorbent was optimized regarding loading and elution conditions, and it was used to extract CDCA from crude bile, resulting in recoveries in the range 94.2-96.1%., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Monodispersed magnetic microspheres were synthesized by the magnetization of the aminized polystyrene cores and the subsequent polymerization of allyl glycidyl ether, divinylbenzene and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone, which exhibited excellent monodispersity in aqueous solution and high efficiency for allyl-benzodioxoles extraction. Various techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) were employed to characterize the composites. Coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), a sensitive and simple magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) procedure based on the prepared microspheres was established for determination of allyl-benzodioxoles in cola-flavoured drinks. The factors affecting the extraction procedure, such as pH value, adsorbent amount, adsorption time, desorption solution and desorption time were optimized. The developed method was characterized by a high recovery (spiked at 5 μg L -1 , 25 μg L -1 and 250 μg L -1 ), a low detection limit (0.05 μg L -1 for safrole and 0.08 μg L -1 for myristicin), a good linearity (correlation coefficients higher than 0.9990 for both) and a satisfactory repeatability (relative standard deviation below 3.7% for both, n = 3). The approach proposed here was confirmed to be fast and reliable for quantitative analysis of allyl-benzodioxoles in cola samples, especially at a trace level., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, a simple and reliable method has been established to determine the residues of nine pesticides in tobacco by using GC-MS coupled with magnetic solid phase extraction. A novel magnetic Zr-MOF nanocomposite based on graphene was synthesized, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy and N 2 adsorption-desorption measurements. The prepared material has the advantage of large surface area (178 m 2 /g), good magnetic response and high thermal stability, which is shown to be suited for the fast enrichment of multi-pesticides in tobacco matrix. The extraction conditions including amount of adsorbent, adsorption time, eluting solvent as well as desorption time were investigated. The whole process of pretreatment is accomplished within 10 min. This method shows low limit of detection, wide linear range and good reproducibility (relative standard deviations <12.7%), satisfactory recoveries were obtained, ranging from 57.9% to 126.3% for tobacco samples., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study aims to develop a straightforward, sensitive UHPLC-MS/MS method to quantify 15 eicosanoids derived from arachidonic acid in human plasma. Tert-Butyl methyl ether was used on the liquid-liquid extraction method and significantly reduced the expense and time. The method showed excellent linearity for all analytes, with regression coefficients higher than 0.99 over a wide range of concentrations from 0.01 ng mL -1 to 100 ng mL -1 . The recovery rates were over 65.00%, and the matrix effects ranged from 8.42% to 40.00%. The limits of detection ranged from 6 pg mL -1 to 10 pg mL -1 , and all of the limits of quantification were 20 - 33 pg mL -1 . For the broad concentration range, the RE% for accuracy and precision were less than ± 15%. Moreover, trans-4-{4-[3-(4-Trifluoromethoxyphenyl)-ureido] cyclohexyloxy} benzoic acid (t-TUCB) pretreatment extended the window of detection for as much as 30 days. Eicosanoid signaling is altered in various neurological diseases, including pain, Alzheimer's disease and major depressive disorder. Therefore, this rapid, robust quantitative profiling of 15 eicosanoids in plasma could provide a distinct eicosanoid fingerprint for precision medicine in these patients., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) have been effectively used as a rapid and economical method for the separation and purification of many enzymes or proteins. However, a key problem is the recovery of the polymers forming ATPS and there are rarely available studies about ATPS for the transglutaminase. In this study, a pH-responsive ATPS has been established by two pH-responsive polymers (P ADB4.91 and P ADB4.06 ) that can be recycled by changing the pH values, with high recovery of over 96%. And partitioning of the crude transglutaminase in this new ATPS was investigated for the first time. The main parameters, such as crude TGase feedstock load, the pH of system (pH 6.50-7.80), polymers concentration, and the types and concentration of salts, were studied to optimize partition conditions. In the 3% P ADB4.91 /2% P ADB4.06 ATPS, enzyme recovery of 96.51%, partition coefficient of 4.23 and purification factor of 3.73 for TGase were obtained in the presence of 60 mmol/L MgSO4 and at pH 7.00. The result of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis shows that TGase can be well separated from crude extract., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) has great potential in industrial applications of bio-separations and bio-reactions. However, its large-scale application is limited by recovery difficulty of phase systems. In this paper, a recyclable ATPS was prepared by two pH-responsive copolymers (P ADB4.99 and P MDM7.08 ) and applied for purification of porcine circovirus type 2 Cap protein fermentation broth (PCV2 Cap protein). Phase separation mechanism was studied by using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR). The results showed that relatively desirable ATPS were formed successfully when two copolymer concentrations were 4%-6% (w/w) with pH 7.5-8.6. The main parameters, such as copolymer concentration, temperature, pH, type and concentration of salts, were investigated. The results demonstrated that the best ATPS consisted of 4% (w/w) P ADB4.99 and 6% (w/w) P MDM7.08 , the optimal partition coefficient (K) and extraction recovery (ER) of PCV2 cap protein were 0.25 and 94.2% in the presence of 50 mM Li 2 SO 4 , 3.53 and 93.4% in the presence of 40 mM KCl, respectively, at 30 °C, pH 8.1. The maximum purity of PCV2 Cap protein was 88.4%. In addition, the two phase-forming copolymers could be recycled by adjusting solution pH to their isoelectric points (pI), with recoveries of over 97.5%., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Herein, an accurate and reliable isotope-labelled internal standard method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of three polar pesticide adjuvants, namely 2-pyrrolidone, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, and N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone in plant-derived agro-products. Matrices, including apple, cabbage, tomato, cucumber, rice, and wheat were extracted with a modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe "QuEChERS" method and purified with a new clean-up sorbent (Z-Sep). A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography column (HILIC), exhibiting a lipophilic-hydrophilic character, was used to separate the three analytes over 10min using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Matrix effects in various matrices were evaluated and an isotope-labelled internal standard method was employed to compensate for ion enhancement/suppression effects. At three fortification levels (2.0, 5.0, and 20.0μg/kg), the mean recoveries ranged from 78.5 to 112.1% with relative standard deviations (RSDs)<11.0% for all tested analytes. The limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were 0.04-0.45 and 0.12-1.58μg/kg in various matrices, respectively. The developed experimental protocol was successfully applied to monitor different samples purchased from local markets in Beijing, China. In conclusion, the developed method exhibited both high sensitivity and satisfactory accuracy and is suitable for the simultaneous determination of the three tested pesticide adjuvant residues in agro-products of plant origin., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Reverse micellar extraction is an efficient and economical alternative for protein purification. In this study, microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) from crude materials was purified using reverse micellar extraction, and the molecular interaction mechanism in reverse micellar extraction of MTGase was explored. By using a molecular simulation study, the interaction mechanism of forward extraction was investigated. The molecular simulation results reveal the interaction of MTGase-water-surfactant is the major driving force for the forward extraction. Further, the effect of ionic strength on molecular interactions in backward extraction was investigated using 1H low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectra. In backward extraction, the interactions between water and the other two molecules (MTGase and surfactant molecules) are enhanced while the interactions between target molecules (MTGase) and the other two molecules (water and surfactant molecules) are weakened as the ionic strength increases. Moreover, the effect of size exclusion on backward extraction was also investigated. The results demonstrate size exclusion has limit effect at high ionic strength, and the weakened interaction of MTGase-water-surfactant is the main reason causing the release of the target molecules in backward extraction. This work might provide valuable reference to the MTGase purification and downstream processing., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

G-quadruplex DNA structure is considered to be a very attractive target for antitumor drug design due to its unique role in maintaining telomerase activities. Therefore, discovering ligands with high stability of G-quadruplex structure is of great interest. In this paper, pH-zone refining counter current chromatography (CCC) and preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were employed for the separation of potent G-quadruplex ligands from the n-butanol fraction of the crude extract of Zanthoxylum ailanthoides, which is a traditional Chinese medicine recently found to display high inhibitory activity against several human cancer cells. The 75% aqueous ethanol extract of the stem bark of Z. ailanthoides and its fractions with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol displayed almost the same G-quadruplex stabilization ability. Here, pH-zone refining CCC was used for the separation of the alkaloids from the n-butanol fraction by a seldom used solvent system composed of dichloromethane-methanol-water (4:1:2.5) with 10mM TEA in the organic stationary phase as retainer and 10mM HCl in the aqueous mobile phase as eluter. Compounds I, II and III were obtained, with purity greater than 95%, in the quantities of 31.2, 94.0, and 26.4mg respectively from 300mg of lipophilic fraction within 80min, which were identified as three tetrahydroprotoberberines isolated for the first time in this plant. In addition, a phenylpropanoid glycoside compound IV (Syringin), an isoquinoline (Magnoflorine, V), and two lignin isomers (+)-lyoniresiol-3α-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (VI) and (-)-lyoniresinol -3α-O-β-D -glucopyranoside (VII) were isolated by traditional CCC together with preparative HPLC. Compounds IV, V, VI and VII were obtained, with purity greater than 95%, in the quantities of 4.0, 13.2, 6.7, and 6.5mg respectively from 960mg of hydrophilic fraction. Among the seven isolated compounds, tetrahydroprotoberberine I, II and III were found to display remarkable stabilization effects on G-quadruplex by increasing G-quadruplex's T m approximately 10°C, which may be the most potent G-quadruplex ligands in Z. ailanthoides., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) have the potential application in bioseparation and biocatalysis engineering. In this paper, a recyclable ATPS was developed by two thermo-responsive copolymers, P VBAm and P N . Copolymer P VBAm was copolymerized using N-vinylcaprolactam, Butyl methacrylate and Acrylamide as monomers, and P N was synthesized by N-isopropylacrylamide. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of P VBAm and P N were 45.0°C and 33.5°C, respectively. The recoveries of both polymers could achieve over 95.0%. The phase behavior and formation mechanism of P VBAm /P N ATPS was studied. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) was applied in the phase-forming mechanism study in ATPS. In addition, combining the analysis results of surface tension, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering, the phase-forming of the P VBAm /P N ATPS was proved. The application was performed by partition of ε-polylysine in the 2% P VBAm /2% P N (w/w) ATPS. The results demonstrated that ε-polylysine was extracted into the P N -rich phase, the maximal partition coefficient (1/K) and extraction recovery of pure ε-polylysine were 6.87 and 96.36%, respectively, and 7.41 partition coefficient and 97.85% extraction recovery for ε-polylysine fermentation broth were obtained in the presence of 50mM (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 at room temperature. And this method can effectively remove the most impurities from fermentation broth when (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 exists in the ATPS. It is believed that the thermo-responsive recycling ATPS has a good application prospect in the field of bio-separation., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), and tenuazonic acid (TeA) are some of the main Alternaria mycotoxins that can be found as contaminants in food materials. The objective of this study was to develop a pretreatment method with countercurrent chromatography (CCC) for enrichment and cleanup of trace Alternaria mycotoxins in food samples prior to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. An Analytical CCC instrument with a column volume 22.5mL was used, and a two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate and water modified with 6% [HOOMIM][Cl] in mass to volume ratio was selected. Under the optimized CCC operation conditions, trace amounts of AOH, AME, and TeA in large volume of liquid sample were efficiently extracted and enriched in the stationary phase, and then eluted out just by reversing the stationary phase as mobile phase in the opposite flowing direction tail-to-head. The enrichment and elution strategies are unique and can be fulfilled online with high enrichment factors (87-114) and high recoveries (81.14-110.94%). The method has been successively applied to the determination of Alternaria mycotoxins in real apple juice and wine samples with the limits of detection (LOD) in the range of 0.03-0.14μgL(-1). Totally 12 wine samples and 15 apple juice samples from the local market were analyzed. The detection rate of AOH and AME in both kinds of the samples were more than 50%, while TeA was found in relatively high level of 1.75-49.61μgL(-1) in some of the apple juice samples. The proposed method is simple, rapid, and sensitive and could also be used for the analysis and monitoring of Alternaria mycotoxin in other food samples., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Reversed-phase chromatography is an established method for characterizing the disulfide isoforms of IgG2. This work explores the effect of mobile phase gradient profile and sample concentration on the separation of disulfide isoforms. The acidic mobile phase can alter the relative proportions of disulfide isoforms, but only when the level of the reactive A1 isoform is much higher than for typical conditions of separation and typical IgG2 samples. Otherwise, there is minimal disulfide scrambling. A slower gradient and flow rate modestly improve resolution, but the peaks remain heavily overlapped. Resolution is further improved and nonlinear chromatography lessened when injection is performed under non-stacking conditions. Non-stacking conditions also keep the concentration from spiking at the head of the column, reducing noncovalent associations that can promote disulfide scrambling. The higher resolution from non-stacking injection reveals the presence of at least seven species., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, a recycling aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) based on two pH-response copolymers PADB and PMDM were used in purification of β-Glucan from Grifola frondosa. The main parameters, such as polymer concentration, type and concentration of salt, extraction temperature and pH, were investigated to optimize partition conditions. The results demonstrated that β-Glucan was extracted into PADB-rich phase, while impurities were extracted into PMDM-rich phase. In this 2.5% PADB/2.5% PMDM ATPS, 7.489 partition coefficient and 96.92% extraction recovery for β-Glucan were obtained in the presence of 30mmol/L KBr, at pH 8.20, 30°C. The phase-forming copolymers could be recycled by adjusting pH, with recoveries of over 96.0%. Furthermore, the partition mechanism of Maitake β-Glucan in PADB/PMDM aqueous two-phase systems was studied. Fourier transform infrared spectra, ForteBio Octet system and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) were introduced for elucidating the partition mechanism of β-Glucan. Especially, LF-NMR was firstly used in the mechanism analysis in partition of aqueous two-phase systems. The change of transverse relaxation time (T2) in ATPS could reflect the interaction between polymers and β-Glucan., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aqueous two-phase systems are efficient purification methods for bioproducts. However, recovery difficulty of the copolymers forming aqueous two-phase systems becomes obstacle in scale-up application. In the study, novel recyclable aqueous two-phase systems have been developed by using two thermo-responsive copolymers, PNE and PVAm. Copolymer PNE was copolymerized by using N-isopropylacrylamide and ethyl methacrylate as monomers, and PVAm was synthesized by using N-vinylcaprolactam and acrylamide as monomers. The lower critical solution temperatures of PNE and PVAm are 28.7°C and 35.6°C, respectively. The recoveries of both polymers can reach over 95%. The minimal and maximal partition coefficient of cefprozil was 0.33 at 50mM NH4F and 6.55 at 70mM LiCl. Two empirical equations were used to correlate with experimental binodal curve. Partition coefficients of cefprozil examined in the ATPS were correlated with tie-line length and calculated partition coefficient., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We propose a strategy that integrates ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS) and virtual docking to identify inhibitors of multiple human -glucosidases. UPLC yielded AIB656, an acarviostatin-containing complex, which was analyzed by Q-TOF-MS to acquire structural information and was tested for inhibition of N-terminal (MGAM-N), C-terminal (MGAM-C) catalytic domain of maltase-glucoamylase, and human pancreatic -amylase (HPA).A systematic computational study was performed to evaluate the inhibition activity for 51 identified acarviostatins with various sizes, including trace or difficult-to-prepare ingredients. We evaluated the selectivities of three -glucosidases to acarviostatins and revealed the strong inhibition of MGAM-Nby acarviostatin I0-1. The high accuracy of the dual-screening was validated using enzyme inhibition assays, and docking was suggested as a possible mechanism for the strong inhibition of MGAM-N by acarviostatin I0-1 and of MGAM-C by acarbose (acarviostatin I01). No compound in AIB656 was suitable for inhibiting all three -glucosidases. Compared with conventional chromatographic separation and inhibitory activity detection, integrating UPLC/Q-TOF-MS identification and virtual validation was more convenient and more reliable. This strategy clearly demonstrates that MS data-based fingerprinting is a meaningful tool not only in identifying constituents in complex matrix but also in directly screening for powerful trace ingredients in natural products.

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous determination of 19 Fusarium toxins and their metabolites including deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), T-2 toxin (T-2), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol (3-AcDON), 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15-AcDON), neosolaniol (NEO), fusarenon-X (F-X), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), monoacetoxyscirpenol (MAS), zearalanone (ZAN), zearalenone (ZON), α-Zearalenol (α-ZOL), β-Zearalenol (β-ZOL), a-Zearalanol (α-ZAL), β-Zearalanol (β-ZAL), T-2 triol, T-2 tetraol, deepoxy-deoxynialenol (DOM-1) in the muscle, liver, kidney, fat of swine, bovine and sheep, muscle and liver of chicken, muscle and skin of fish, as well as milk and eggs. Sample preparation procedure includes ultrasound-assisted extraction with acetonitrile/water (90/10, v/v), defatting with n-hexane and final clean-up with auto solid phase extraction (SPE) on Bond Elut Mycotoxin cartridges. The detection and quantification of the analytes were performed by a reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS). DON, NIV, DOM-1, 3-AcDON, 15-AcDON, F-X, ZON, ZAN, α-ZOL, β-ZOL, α-ZAL, β-ZAL, T-2 triol and T-2 tetraol were detected in a negative ion mode, while T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, NEO, DAS and MAS were detected in a positive ion mode. The CCα and CCβ of the analytes in different samples varied from 0.16 to 1.37μg/kg and 0.33 to 2.34μg/kg, respectively. The recoveries of spiked sample from 0.5μg/kg to 8μg/kg ranged from 64.8% to 108.2% with the relative standard deviations of less than 19.4%. Performances of the whole analytical procedure meet the criteria established by the European Commission for mass spectrometric detection., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with a pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) was developed for the simultaneous determination of aflatoxins B₁, B₂, G₁, G₂, M₁ and M₂, and ochratoxin A in the muscle, liver, kidney and fat of swine, bovine and sheep, muscle and liver of chicken, muscle and skin of fish, as well as in hen eggs and dairy milk. Samples were extracted with PLE and cleaned-up with solid phase extraction (SPE) on HLB cartridges. The optimum extraction conditions were obtained as a 11 ml ASE cell, acetonitrile/hexane as the extraction solvent, 1500 psi, 100 °C, a 5 min static time and a 60% flush volume. A cheaper and widely used SPE column (Oasis HLB) was applied during clean up. The detection and quantification of the 7 mycotoxins were performed by a reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS). The limits of detection defined as CCα varied from 0.07 μg/kg to 0.59 μg/kg. The recoveries of spiked samples from 0.25 μg/kg to 1 μg/kg ranged from 68.3% to 105.7% with the relative standard deviations of less than 17.6%. Performances of the whole analytical procedure met the criteria established by the European Commission for mass spectrometric detection., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aqueous two-phase systems have potential applications for separation and purification of bioproducts in bio-industry. However, a key problem is the recovery of the polymers forming aqueous two-phase systems. In this study, two novel random copolymers (P(ADB) and P(ADBA)) were synthesized using acrylic acid, dimethylamino-ethyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate and allyl alcohol as monomers and used to form pH response aqueous two-phase systems. The recoveries of P(ADB) and P(ADBA) are 97.18% and 98.87% and the pI of P(ADB) and P(ADBA) are 2.79 and 4.01, respectively. Demeclocycline was partitioned in the P(ADB)/P(ADBA) aqueous two-phase systems and the partition coefficient reached 0.085, in the presence of MgSO₄ (60 mmol/L) at pH 5.28., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Although chromatographic fingerprinting combined with chemometrics, is a rational method for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), chemometrics cannot fully explore the relationship between chemical information and the efficacy of the potential activity. In the present work, a cell-based β₂ adrenergic receptor (β₂AR) agonist functional evaluation model coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography was developed to screen the potential β₂AR agonist components in the alkaloidal extract of Alstonia scholaris leaves. Using a liquid chromatography with ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LCMS-IT-TOF) system, the potential bioactive compounds in the prescription were identified and deduced based on the mass spectrometric fragmentation patterns, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data, and relevant literature. Several new β₂AR agonists of indole alkaloids were successfully found, and their activities were confirmed through an in vivo relaxant test on guinea pig tracheal muscles. The developed method is rapid and reliable compared with conventional fingerprinting and showed high sensitivity and resolution for the identification of β₂AR agonists in TCM prescriptions. This strategy clearly demonstrates that bioactivity-integrated fingerprinting is a powerful tool not only in screening and identifying potential lead compounds and in determining the therapeutic material basis of Chinese herbal prescriptions, but also in supplying suitable chemical markers for their quality control., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Counter-current chromatography (CCC) is extremely useful for the separation, purification, and isolation of natural products. Recently, Berthod et al. established an elution-extrusion CCC method in metabolic analysis by combining regular chromatographic elution with stationary-phase extrusion, which extends the hydrophobicity window of a counter-current separation. In this study, a novel overlapping elution-extrusion CCC method was developed and applied to the preparation of natural cytotoxic andrographolides from the aerial parts of Andrographis paniculata, a well-known Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with potent anti-inflammatory effect and anti-cancer activity. Its theory was first developed, and then a series of CCC experiments were performed to investigate the efficiency of the method in the separation of the ethanol extracts from A. paniculata. Results show that overlapping elution-extrusion CCC is an efficient method to prepare a cytotoxic natural diterpenoid combination of 14-deoxy-andrographolide and 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide with the molar ratio of 1:2 as well as andrographolide using an optimized solvent system composed of hexane-ethyl acetate-ethanol-water (5:5:4:6, v/v) with an on-demand solvent preparation mode. All components obtained showed potent cytotoxic activity against human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cells HepG2 and doxorubicin-resistant R-HepG2 cells. Molecular structures have been identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS), one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (1D- and 2D-NMR). The method appears to be very useful for the high-throughput purification of natural products., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

G-quadruplex DNA structure is considered to be a very attractive target for antitumor drug design due to its unique role in maintaining telomerase activities. Therefore, discovering ligands with high stability of G-quadruplex structure is of great interest. In this paper, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for fast screening of G-quadruplex ligands from the crude extract of Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb.) Koidz, a traditional Chinese medicine. Four potent G-quadruplex ligands were firstly selected through HPLC by comparing the peak profiles and absorption intensity of the crude sample before and after interaction with G-quadruplex DNA. Then the target compounds were isolated and purified by high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) for further confirmation of their stabilities of G-quadruplex by temperature-dependent circular dichroism (CD). Four compounds were isolated and identified as 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (I), chlorogenic acid (II), caffeic acid (III) and 5-feruloylquinic acid (IV) each by MS and NMR. Finally, compound I, II, III were each proved to be potent G-quadruplex ligands by decreasing the peak intensity in HPLC chromatogram after complexation with G-quadruplex, which stabilize G-quadruplex by 7±2 °C, 10±2 °C, and 3±2 °C respectively, based on CD analyses. However, compound IV showed no G-quadruplex stability. The decrease of peak absorption intensity in HPLC chromatogram is the most important signal to find G-quadruplex ligands. This provides a very promising strategy for fast screening G-quadruplex ligands from natural plant extracts., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, we have established a new stop-and-go two-dimensional chromatography coupling of counter-current chromatography and liquid chromatography (2D CCC × LC) for the preparative separation of two novel antioxidant flavonoids from the extract of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). The CCC column has been used as the first dimension to purify the target flavonoids using a solvent system of isopropanol and 20% sodium chloride aqueous solution (1:1, v/v) with the stop-and-go flow technique, and the LC column packed with macroporous resin has been employed as the second dimension for on-line absorption, desalination and desorption of the targeting effluents purified from the first CCC dimension. As a result, two novel flavonoids, 6,8-dihydroxy-flavone-7-O-β-D-glucuronide (15.3 mg) and 6-methoxy-8-hydroxy-flavone-7-O-β-D-glucuronide (13.7 mg), have been isolated from 126.8 mg of crude sample pre-enriched by macroporous resin column. Their structures have been identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS) and one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectra (1D and 2D NMR). Further antioxidant assays showed that the first component possess a strong antioxidant activity. All the results demonstrated that the stop-and-go 2D CCC × LC method is very efficient for the separation of flavonoids of alfalfa and it can also be applied to isolate other comprehensive multi-component natural products., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Apple pomace, a by-product in the processing of apple juice, was investigated as a potential source of polyphenols. Two methods of separation and purification of polyphenols from apple pomace extract were established by combination of gel chromatography with high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) and solvent extraction with HSCCC, respectively. The optimal separation was performed on a Sephadex LH-20 column using gradient aqueous ethanol as eluting solvent from 0% to 100% in increments of 10%. HPLC analysis indicated that main polyphenols existed in fractions eluted between 40% and 50% aqueous ethanol. The fractions of interest from column were separated by HSCCC with the solvent system hexane-ethyl acetate-1% aqueous acetic acid (0.5:9.5:10, v/v/v). Ethyl acetate fractionation of the apple pomace extract followed by direct HSCCC separation by the same solvent system in the volume ratio of 1:9:10 also produced a good separation of the main polyphenols of interest. Six high-purity polyphenols were achieved tentatively and identified by HPLC/MS: chlorogenic acid (1, m/z 354), quercetin-3-glucoside/quercetin-3-glacaside (2, m/z 464), quercetin-3-xyloside (3, m/z 434), phloridzin (4, m/z 436), quercetin-3-arabinoside (5, m/z 434), and quercetin-3-rhamnoside (6, m/z 448). These results provided a preliminary foundation for further development and exploration of apple pomace.

This paper describes a novel mixed-bed immunoaffinity column (IAC) method. The IAC was produced by coupling anti-quinolone and anti-sulfonamide broad-specificity monoclonal antibodies to Sepharose 4B for simultaneously isolating 13 quinolones (QNs) and 6 sulfonamides (SAs) from swine and chicken muscle tissues, followed by antibiotic determination using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A new broad-specificity Mab (B1A4E8) toward sulfonamides was produced using sulfamethoxazole as hapten that demonstrated cross-reactivities to 6 SAs in the range of 31-112%. IAC optimized conditions were found that allowed the IAC to be reused for selective binding of both SAs and QNs. Recoveries of all 19 antibiotics from animal muscle ranged from 72.6 to 107.6%, with RSDs below 11.3% and 15.4% for intra-day and inter-day experiments, respectively. The limit of quantification ranged from 0.5 to 3.0ng/g. The strategy used here for a mixed-bed IAC may be used to study other compounds and more than two classes of analytes simultaneously.

Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) are potential bioseparation techniques in industry. However, a key problem is that aqueous two-phase systems could not be effectively recycled to result in high cost and environment pollution. Recently, how to prepare recycling copolymers forming aqueous two-phase systems is focused on in the area. In this study, a light-sensitive copolymer (P(NNC)) was synthesized by using N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA), N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP), chlorophyllin sodium copper salt (CHL) as monomers. The copolymer P(NNC) can form ATPSs with another novel pH-sensitive copolymer (P(ADB)) which was synthesized by co-worker in our laboratory. Over 98% of the P(NNC) copolymer could be recovered by using laser radiation at 488 nm. The copolymer P(ADB) could be recovered by adjusting the isoelectric point (pI) to 4.1, with a recovery of 97%. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Tyr were partitioned in the P(NNC)-P(ADB) aqueous two-phase systems to examine the systems. It was found that partition coefficient of BSA and L-Tyr could reach 4.1 and 0.12 in the systems, respectively.

A spiral disk assembly composed of five single-channel units was designed for high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). The retention of different solvent systems ranging from moderately polar to polar organic-aqueous systems to aqueous two-phase systems (ATPs) was investigated under different elution modes. The results indicated that the spiral disk assembly can produce excellent retention of stationary phase for moderately polar organic-aqueous solvent systems, such as chloroform-methanol-water (4:3:2) and hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (1:1:1:1) by pumping lower mobile phase from head (H) to tail (T), and upper mobile phase from tail (T) to head (H) even at a high flow-rate (8 mL/min, Sf>70%), regardless of whether the inlet is at the inner or outer terminal of the channel. This makes it possible for fast analysis of some small molecular compounds. This has been proved in the separation of mixtures of three flavones, including isorhamnetin, kaempferol, and quercetin. The spiral disk assembly can also provide satisfactory retention for polar to ATPS such as 1-butanol-acetic acid-water (4:1:5) (<3 mL/min, Sf>70%), 12.5% poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) 1000-12.5% K2HPO4-75% water (< or =1 mL/min, Sf>70%) and 4% PEG 8000-5% Dextran T500-91% water (< or =0.5 mL/min, Sf>50%) by pumping lower mobile phase from inner terminal (I) to outer terminal (O), and upper mobile phase from outer terminal (O) to inner terminal (I) at a low flow-rate, while this is not possible with the multilayer coil column. Acceptable resolutions were achieved when it was used for the separation of peptides such as Leu-Tyr and Val-Tyr, and proteins including cytochrome c and myoglobin, lysozyme and myoglobin, and fresh chicken egg-white proteins.