Literature on Countercurrent Chromatography/Separation
General Introduction to CCC/CS Literature
The origins of modern countercurrent chromatography can be considered to trace back to a Science paper by Ito and Bowman (Ito and Bowman, 1970), in which the authors described the use of helically coiled tubing and the Archimedean screw force to create a centrifugal field, thereby opening the door to make flow-through partition chromatography an achievable reality. No discussion of this topic is possible without acknowledging the extensive contributions made by Dr. Yoichiro Ito, who has been based at NIH in Bethesda (MD, USA) since the late 1960s. Since that time Ito has continued to publish prolifically on CCC/CS theory and applications, and has been responsible, either himself directly or in a mentorship capacity, for virtually every significant development in the field of high-speed countercurrent chromatography. Dr. Ito is still highly active in the field and has recently published a paper wherein he outlines his “golden rules” for optimizing conditions in CCC/CS experiments (Ito, 2005). Along with Berthod’s 2002 book (see below), this paper will provide the interested reader with sufficient background to get started with CCC.
Several edited books on CCC/CS are available, and each one contains unique and valuable information for the countercurrent chromatographer (Berthod, 2002; Conway, 1990; Conway and Petroski, 1995; Foucault, 1995; Ito and Conway, 1996; Mandava and Ito, 1988; Menet and Thiebaut, 1999).
Research Articles on Countercurrent Chromatography/CS
A majority of the available information on countercurrent chromatography is found in scientific journals. CCC applications have been published in virtually every journal that covers the chemical and/or biological evaluation of pure compounds. The following journals are rich sources of papers on modern CCC/CS theory and applications:
- Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies (Marcel Dekker): formerly Journal of Liquid Chromatography (through 1995); the scientific content of CCC2000 (v. 24 no. 11/12, 2001), CCC2002 (v. 26 no. 9/10, 2003) and CCC2004 (scheduled for June 2005) are published in JLCRT
- Journal of Chromatography A (Elsevier), formerly Journal of Chromatography (through 1993)
Numerous articles on CCC/CS applications can be found in the following journals:
- Analytical Chemistry (ACS Publications)
- Chromatographia (Vieweg Verlag/GWV Fachverlage GmbH)
- Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (ACS Publications)
- Journal of Antibiotics (Japan Antibiotics Research Association)
- Journal of Natural Products (ACS Publications)
- Phytochemistry (Elsevier)
Trends in the Literature on Liquid-liquid Separation Techniques
As shown in A, the rate of appearance of publications on countercurrent chromatography is currently at an all-time high, and based on the recent and rapid advancements in instrumentation, this trend is likely to continue for the next several years. B. Countercurrent distribution (CCD) fell out of use in the late 1960s. In A, the peak centered in the mid-1960s is due largely to work employing CCD instruments in which some variant of the term “chromatography” was used in the abstract.
A
B
Review Articles on CCC/CS of Natural Products by the UIC Group
A comprehensive overview of the CCC/CS literature with regard to the techniques, instrumentation, and applications for natural products has been compiled in the form of a review paper:
Covering the literature until 2007:
Pauli GF, Pro S, Friesen JB.
Countercurrent separation of natural products
Journal of Natural Products 71: 1489–1508 (2008)
doi: dx.doi.org/10.1021/np800144q
Covering the literature 2008-2014:
in preparation (scheduled for publication in 2015)
Literature Cited
Berthod, A, Ed. Countercurrent Chromatography: The support-free liquid stationary phase (Wilson & Wilson's Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry Vol. XXXVIII); Elsevier Science Ltd.: Boston, 2002.
Conway, Walter D., Ed. Countercurrent Chromatography: Apparatus, Theory and Applications; VCH Publishers: New York, 1990.
Conway, Walter D.; Petroski, Richard J. Modern Countercurrent Chromatography (ACS Symposium Series #593); ACS Publications, 1995.
Foucault, Alain P., Ed. Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (Chromatographic Science Series, Vol. 68); Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York, 1995.
Ito, Y; Bowman, R L. Countercurrent chromatography: liquid-liquid partition chromatography without solid support. Science 1970, 167, 281-283.
Ito, Yoichiro. Golden rules and pitfalls in selecting optimum conditions for high-speed counter-current chromatography. Journal of Chromatography, A 2005, 1065, 145-168.
Ito, Yoichiro; Conway, Walter D., Eds. High-speed Countercurrent Chromatography (Chemical Analysis, Vol 132); John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1996.
Mandava, N. Bhushan; Ito, Yoichiro, Eds. Countercurrent Chromatography: Theory and Practice (Chromatographic Science Series, Vol. 44); Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York, 1988.
Menet, Jean-Michel; Thiebaut, Didier, Eds. Countercurrent Chromatography (Chromatographic Science Series Vol 82); Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York, 1999.