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Phytoecdysteroids are molecules derived from sterol metabolism and found in many plants. They display a wide array of pharmacological effects on mammals (e.g. anabolic, anti-diabetic). Although these effects have been long established, the molecular targets involved remain to be identified. Like endogenous steroid hormones and bile acids, which are biochemically related, ingested or injected phytoecdysteroids undergo a set of reactions in mammals leading to the formation of numerous metabolites, only some of which have been so far identified, and it is presently unknown whether they represent active metabolites or inactivation products. In the large intestine, ecdysteroids undergo efficient 14-dehydroxylation. Other changes (reductions, epimerization, side-chain cleavage) are also observed, but whether these occur in the liver and/or large intestine is not known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E), the most common phytoecdysteroid, when administered to mice and rats, using, when required, tritium-labelled molecules to permit metabolic tracking. Bioavailability, the distribution of radioactivity and the kinetics of formation of metabolites were followed for 24-48 hours after ingestion and qualitative and quantitative analyses of circulating and excreted compounds were performed. In mice, the digestive tract always contains the majority of the ingested 20E. Within 30 min after ingestion, 20E reaches the large intestine, where microorganisms firstly remove the 14-hydroxyl group and reduce the 6-one. Then a very complex set of metabolites (not all of which have yet been identified) appears, which correspond to poststerone derivatives formed in the liver. We have observed that these compounds (like bile acids) undergo an entero-hepatic cycle, involving glucuronide conjugation in the liver and subsequent deconjugation in the intestine. Despite the very short half-life of ecdysteroids in mammals, this entero-hepatic cycle helps to maintain their plasma levels at values which, albeit low (≤0.2 µM), would be sufficient to evoke several pharmacological effects. Similar 20E metabolites were observed in mice and rats; they include in particular 14-deoxy-20E, poststerone and 14-deoxypoststerone and their diverse reduction products; the major products of this metabolism have been unambiguously identified. The major sites of metabolism of exogenous ecdysteroids in mammals are the large intestine and the liver. The entero-hepatic cycle contributes to the metabolism and to maintaining a low, but pharmacologically significant, concentration of ecdysteroids in the blood for ca. 24 h after ingestion. These data, together with parallel in vitro experiments provide a basis for the identification of 20E metabolite(s) possibly involved in the physiological effects associated with ecdysteroids in mammals.

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In the aim of beta-carotene biocompatible extraction, toxicity of various pure solvents belonging to different homologous series has been investigated for Dunaliella salina. The results showed that solvents having logP(oct) > 5 or having a molecular weight over 150 g/mol can be considered biocompatible for this microalga. The membrane critical solvent concentration for each series of solvents has been calculated applying Osborne's model, showing that the aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbon is the most toxic family studied. Mixtures of a biocompatible solvent (decane) with a toxic solvent (CH(2)Cl(2), MEK, MTBE) have been studied. The beta-carotene extraction ability of CH(2)Cl(2)-decane mixture was found six times more efficient than with pure decane. It has been demonstrated that the extraction ability of solvent depends on its affinity with the product extracted and on its concentration incorporated in the cellular membrane.

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The predominant repeating structure of a fraction of the fucoidan from Ascophyllum nodosum prepared by acid hydrolysis and centrifugal partition chromatography (LMWF) was established as: [-->3)-alpha-L-Fuc(2SO3-)-(1-->4)-alpha-L-Fuc(2,3diSO3-)-(1]n by NMR spectroscopy and methylation analysis. The proton and carbon NMR spectra of this unit have been assigned and found to correspond with features in the spectra of the whole purified fucan from A. nodosum which account for most of the integrated intensity. The same structure has also been recognised in the fucoidan of Fucus vesiculosus. The fraction LMWF has in vitro anticoagulant activity, indicating that the above structure may be partly responsible for biological activity in the native fucoidan.

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Examples of chiral separations in counter-current chromatography (CCC) and centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) are not numerous, due to the difficulty of finding chiral selectors highly selective in the liquid phase as well as a combination of solvents that does not destroy the selectivity and retains the capacity to elute chiral isomers of interest. New ideas and new chiral selectors generally come from other separation techniques, as will be highlighted in this review.

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Centrifugal partition chromatography in ion-exchange displacement mode was used to fractionate mixtures of sulfated oligofucans obtained by partial depolymerization of brown seaweed fucoidans. Diluted (10%, v/v) protonated LA2 (a lipophilic secondary amine) is used as a weak exchanger. In an attempt to improve this method, several solvents (methyl isobutyl ketone, methyl tert.-butyl ether, BuOH) were tested to dissolve LA2H+. MtBE produced less bleeding than MiBK, whereas BuOH proved unsuitable. The sample injected needs to be highly diluted in water to ensure participation in the chromatographic process. A comparison of data (NMR, composition, molecular mass) indicated the homogeneity of the fractions obtained as well as the differences between them.

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The composition, molecular weight (MW), anticoagulant activity and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of various low-molecular-weight fucans (LMWFs) obtained by partial hydrolysis or radical depolymerization of a crude fucoidan extracted from the brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum are compared. Fucose units were found mainly sulfated at O-2, to a lesser extent at O-3, and only slightly at O-4, contrary to previously published results for fucoidans from other brown seaweeds, and fucose 2, 3-O-disulfate residues were observed for the first time. As the sulfation pattern excluded an alpha-(1-->2)-linked fucose backbone and a high proportion of alpha-(1-->4) linkages was found, it would appear that the concept of fucoidan structure needs to be revised. Anticoagulant activity is apparently related not only to MW and sulfation content, as previously determined, but also (and more precisely) to 2-O-sulfation and 2,3-O-disulfation levels.

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A new method combining ion-exchange displacement chromatography with centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) was used for the fractionation of partially depolymerized fucans (polysulphated polysaccharides). The ion-exchanger was Amberlite LA2, a high-molecular-mass liquid secondary amine miscible with most common organic solvents and immiscible with aqueous solutions. Ion-exchange displacement centrifugal partition chromatography was performed with LA2 in methyl isobutyl ketone (MiBK) as the stationary phase, water as the mobile phase, Cl- as the carrier and OH- as the displacer. A complex mixture of partially depolymerized fucans was resolved into adjacent families characterized by their peak molecular mass and polydispersity. The Dubois test (sugar) and the azur A test (SO3-) confirmed the displacement mode of the process, and size-exclusion chromatographic controls confirmed its efficiency.

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The 1-O-alkylglycerol composition of the liver oil of the deep sea shark Centrophorus squamosus, a species which provides edible flesh, has been determined. After various fractionations of the oil, the unsaponifiable fraction was characterized by means of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, electron impact, and positive-ion chemical ionization. The oil is composed of 60% unsaponifiable matter, containing 45% squalene, 4.5% cholesterol, and 10% of linear saturated and monounsaturated glycerol ethers with 14-18 carbon atoms. After a first separation by chromatography on silicic acid, monounsaturated glycerol ethers have been separated from the saturated homologues, in particular from 1-O-octadecylglycerol (batyl alcohol) and 1-O-hexadecylglycerol (chimyl alcohol), via urea complexation. This newer application of the urea method, already used in the past to extract saturated from polyunsaturated fatty acids, allowed the purification of the main components of the complex unsaturated glycerol ether fraction, namely, 1-O-octadecen-9'ylglycerol (selachyl alcohol) and 1-O-hexadecen-9'ylglycerol.

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Gram quantities of (+/-)-dinitrobenzoyl amino acids were separated by high-speed counter-current chromatography (CCC) using N-dodecanoyl-L-proline-3,5-dimethylanilide as a chiral selector (CS). Standard and pH-zone-refining CCC techniques were compared. By using the standard technique, 10 mg to a maximum of 1 g of samples was resolved in 2-9 h simply by increasing the concentration of the CS in the stationary phase. By using pH-zone-refining CCC, even more sample (2 g) was efficiently separated in less time (3 h). In both techniques, leakage of CS from the column was negligible. The method requires no solid support and the same column can be used repeatedly to separate a variety of enantiomers by dissolving appropriate chiral selectors in the stationary phase.

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