Countercurrent chromatography: People and applications

• Published in: Journal of Chromatography A Vol. 1216; no. 19; pp. 4206 - 4217
• Main Authors: Berthod, A., Ruiz-Ángel, M.J., Carda-Broch, S.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 08.05.2009; Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier; Elsevier
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Authors; Authorship; Bibliometrics; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Products - isolation & purification; Chemistry; China; Chromatographic methods and physical methods associated with chromatography; Countercurrent chromatography; Countercurrent Distribution; Enantiomers; Europe; Exact sciences and technology; Extraction; General pharmacology; Impact index; Japan; Journal Impact Factor; Medical sciences; Natural products; Other chromatographic methods; people; Periodicals as Topic; Pharmacognosy. Homeopathy. Health food; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Publishing; Purification; Subject Headings; United States; United States; China; Europe; Japan; Countercurrent chromatography; Purification; Natural products; Authors; Journals; Extraction; Enantiomers; Impact index; Preparative chromatography; Review; Natural compound; Scientific literature; Impact factor; Enantiomer; Author; Isolation
• ISSN: 0021-9673; 1873-3778
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2008.10.071

The scientific literature was scanned for the published research articles dealing with countercurrent chromatography (CCC) over the time period 1980-May 2008. The search returned 1638 articles that were analyzed focussing on people and applications. Concerning the people, it was found that the geographical location of the CCC authors was relatively well balanced between USA, Asia with mainly China and Japan and Europe. Yoichiro Ito, the inventor of the technique, is by far the most productive author in the field with 331 articles or more than one over five CCC articles published in the time period. Without surprise, English is the dominant language with more than 82% of the articles. A significant 8% amount of CCC articles were published in Chinese in Chinese journals. Chromatography journals are the logical tribune for half of the published CCC articles. Concerning the applications, the separation and purification of natural compounds is the dominant theme in CCC making the subject of more than one article over two. Starting from the plant extract, CCC in few steps can produce significant amounts of more than 95% pure compounds used for identification and/or property studies. Other applications are found in the pharmaceutical and chemical field. The separation of enantiomers on the preparative scale is a field of growing importance.