Solvent derived artifacts in natural products chemistry

Federica Maltese, Frank Van der Kooy, Robert Verpoorte

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    90 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Solvents play an important and critical role in natural product chemistry. They are mainly used during the extraction and purification of metabolites from a biological matrix. To a lesser extent, solvents are also used as reagents or catalysts to perform chemical reactions. This review focuses on the most important classes of solvents, including alcohols, halogen-containing solvents, esters, ethers, acids and bases. The chemical reactions associated with the use of these solvents to form the so-called "artifacts" are discussed and the most common contaminants found in these solvents are also reviewed. The formation of artifacts and the use of contaminated solvents mainly leads to the formation of new compounds, loss of activity of active compounds, formation of active compounds from inactive ones (false positives), loss in total yield of important compounds during isolation, formation of toxic compounds and difficulty in reproducing an extraction or purification method. Finally, the need for stability studies of purified natural products is emphasized, as this is a common overlooked aspect in natural product chemistry.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)447-454
    Number of pages8
    JournalNatural Product Communications
    Volume4
    Issue number3
    Publication statusPublished - 2009

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Solvent derived artifacts in natural products chemistry'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this