High performance liquid chromatography used in vitamin synthesis study

High performance liquid chromatography has been used in research that aims to improve the synthesis of vitamin D-3, which is commonly used in the fortification of foods.

Shinichiro Fuse and Takashi Takahashi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology unveiled their study at the Pacifichem conference in Hawaii, Chemical & Engineering reports.

They said existing industrial techniques for synthesising vitamin D-3 have yields of less than 20 per cent and it can be difficult to clear the by-products of the reaction.

Their work aims to get around these problems by using a microreactor to combine light-mediated and thermal reactions, which means material from the first reaction is immediately converted into the vitamin, while waste is reduced.

Overall, the system has an isolated yield of 32 per cent - the highest available without the use of specialised laser equipment.

High performance liquid chromatography showed the pre-isolated yield for the system was 60 per cent and Dr Tyler McQuade, an associate professor at Florida State University's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said this suggests analytical chemists can continue to improve the isolated figure.

"This proof of concept could be easily scaled up to achieve much larger production," he commented.