A stable liquid–liquid extraction system for clavulanic acid using polymer-based aqueous two-phase systems

The partitioning of Clavulanic Acid (CA) in a novel inexpensive and stable aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) composed by poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) has been studied. The aqueous two-phase systems are formed by mixing both polymers with a salt (NaCl or Na2SO4) and an aqueous solution of CA. The stability of CA on the presence of both polymers was investigated and it was observed that these polymers do not degrade the biomolecule. The effect of PEG-molecular size, polymer concentrations on the commercial CA partitioning has been studied, at 25 °C. The data showed that commercial CA was preferentially partitioned for the PEG-rich phase with a partition coefficient (KCA) between 1 and 12 in the PEG/NaPA aqueous two phase systems supplemented with NaCl and Na2SO4. The partition to the PEG phase was increased in the systems with high polymer concentrations. Furthermore, Na2SO4 caused higher CA preference for the PEG-phase than NaCl. The systems having a composition with 10 wt.% of PEG4000, 20 wt.% of NaPA8000 and 6 wt.% of Na2SO4 were selected as the optimal ones in terms of recovery of CA from fermented broth of Streptomyces clavuligerus. The partitioning results (KCA = 9.15 ± 1.06) are competitive with commercial extraction methods of CA (KCA = 11.91 ± 2.08) which emphasizes that the system PEG/NaPA/Na2SO4 can be used as a new process to CA purification/concentration from fermented broth.

► A new inexpensive and stable method for Clavulanic Acid (CA) purification is studied.
► The stability and partition of CA in polymer-based aqueous two-phase systems was studied.
► CA is stable in presence of both PEG and NaPA and low salt concentrations.
► All the partition studies show that the CA preferentially partitions to the PEG-rich phase.
► The system used has potential as a new first-step operation of CA recovery and purification.