Csaba Horváth and preparative liquid chromatography

Few chromatographers have been interested in furthering preparative liquid chromatography. The pioneers, Tswett, Kuhn and Lederer, A.J.P. Martin, Tiselius, isolated fractions but as an intermediate step in the analysis of their samples. The progress in electronics and sensors, and in their miniaturization has lead to the paradoxical situation that the analysts never see the transient pure fractions that their detector quantitates. Yet, over the last 25 years, preparative liquid chromatography has become an important industrial process for the separation, the extraction, and/or the purification of many pharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical intermediates, including pure enantiomers, purified peptides and proteins, compounds that are manufactured at the relatively large industrial scale of a few kilograms to several hundred tons per year. This development that has strongly affected the modem pharmaceutical industry is mainly due to the pioneering work of Csaba Horváth. His work in preparative HPLC was critical at both the practical and the theoretical levels. He was the first scientist in modem times to pay serious attention to the relationships between the curvature of the equilibrium isotherms, the competitive nature of nonlinear isotherms, and the chromatographic band profiles of complex mixtures. The thermodynamics of multi-component phase equilibria and mass transfer kinetics in chromatography attracted his interest and were the focus of ground-breaking contributions. He investigated displacement chromatography, an old method invented by Tiselius that Csaba was first to implement in HPLC. This choice was explained by the essential characteristic of displacement chromatography, in that it delivers fractions that can be far more concentrated than the feed. Remarkably, once the basics of nonlinear chromatography had been mastered in his group, most of the applications that were studied by his coworkers dealt with peptides of various sizes and with proteins. Thus, all the applications of preparative HPLC in the biotechnologies derive directly from Csaba's work. Although displacement did not pan out as a general method, the reasons are related more to practical constraints of the production of pharmaceuticals and to the long period of cheap energy that might be ending now. This report reviews Csaba's work in nonlinear chromatography.     

Searching for Robust HPLC Methods – Csaba Horváth and the Solvophobic Theory

This paper is written in remembrance of the work of Csaba Horváth on Reversed Phase Chromatography, (RPC) and the fundamental theory of the mechanism of retention on non-polar stationary phases, the ``Solvophobic Theory''. The paper discusses some steps in the development of this important theory and examines its consequences in developing robust methods for routine RPC. Reliable product quality requires the understanding of selectivity changes, which in RPC govern the development of robust and reliable methods involving continuous changes of liquid chromatographic parameters in aqueous eluents. The application of RPC is still growing in scientific research and in pharmaceutical and chemical production. The impact of the Solvophobic Theory in life sciences has been enormous but it was only a part of Horváth's scientific work. RPC is today one of the most popular, most widely used tools in analytical chemistry and will remain so for many years due to its stability and to its robustness.     

From Csaba Horváth to Quality by Design: Visualizing Design Space in Selectivity Exploration of HPLC Separations

The present paper starts by taking a look back at some of the pioneering work in high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) that went on in Csaba Horváth’s laboratory in 1970s, through the eyes of I. Molnár. It then goes on to describe a very modern approach to HPLC method development within the Quality by Design framework: the multifactorial optimization of three critical HPLC method parameters, i.e. gradient time (t _G), temperature (T), and ternary composition (B₁:B₂) based on 12 experiments. The effect of these experimental variables on critical resolution and selectivity was carried out in such a way as to systematically vary all three factors simultaneously.     

Schrödinger's What is Life?—The 75th Anniversary of a Book that Inspired Biology

In his book What is Life?—The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, Erwin Schrödinger gives a “naïve physicist's” answer to the question “how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?” Although his book was met with criticism from some of his colleagues, it has had a large impact and has served as profound inspiration for pioneers of molecular biology as well as for later generations of both scientists and laymen.     

Estudios sobre âcidos hydroxámicos

Summary The detection of hydroxylamin as ferric hydroxamate has been described in a preceding article. Its small-scale performance as spot test and in a small. test tube is described. The limit of identification is 0.1g hydroxylamine and the limiting concentration is 150000.

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Zusammenfassung Der in einer früheren Arbeit beschriebene Nachweis von Hydroxylamin als Eisen(III)hydroxamat kann auch als Tüpfelreaktion oder in einer Mikreprouvette ausgeführt werden. Die Erfassungsgrenze beträgt 0,1 g Hydroxylamin, die Grenzkonzentration 150000.

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Résumé La recherche de l'hydroxylamine en hydroxamate de fer-III décrite dans un travail antérieur peut être effectuée aussi sous forme d'analyse à la touche ou en micro-éprouvette. La sensibilité absolue atteint 0,1 g d'hydroxylamine et la limite de dilution 150000.

     

Estudios sobre ácidos hidroxámicos

Résumé On propose un procédé de microdosage des groupements méthoxyles dans les pectines, qui repose sur la libération de ces groupements par saponification de l'hydroxylamine alcoolique dans un appareil, sur leur transformation en formiates de méthyle et sur leur distillation. Le formiate de méthyle forme ainsi l'acide formhydroxamique que l'on dose par colorimétrie à l'état de chélate avec le fer-III.On réalise l'hydrolyse de la pectine à 100° C en tube scellé. On fait réagir avec l'acide formique en excès, une partie aliquote de l'hydrolysat dans le micro-appareil de distillation déjà décrit. Le procédé convient pour 1 à 3 mg de pectine et la durée des opérations est de deux heures et demies. Sa spécificité est satisfaisante bien que le groupe éthoxyle puisse gêner. Son action est d'ailleurs peu vraisemblable, puisqu'il ne fait pas partie de la molécule de pectine. Les résultats du procédé sont en générale un peu plus bas que ceux des méthodes volumétriques servant à ce dosage. On a étudié la reproductibilité pour les esters méthyliques et l'on a mis en évidence une erreur par défaut de 2 à 4%. Les plus petites quantités de groupes méthoxyles que l'on puisse doser sont de 20g. Le procédé recommandé est une application particulière de méthodes applicables de façon générale au dosage des esters méthyliques dans les substances organiques. Ce sera l'objet d'une autre communication de cette série.

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Summary A micromethod is given for determining methoxyl groups in pectins. It is based of the liberation of these groups by saponification, conversion into methyl formate, and distillation of the latter into a receiver containing alcoholic hydroxylamine. The methyl formate reacts to give formhydroxamic acid, which is determined colorimetrically as iron(III) chelate.The hydrolysis of the pectin is conducted at 100° C in a sealed tube. An aliquot part of the hydrolysate is brought into reaction with excess formic acid in a microdistillation apparatus that was described previously. The procedure is suitable for 1 to 3 mg pectin and requires 21/2 hours for all partial operations. The specificity is satisfactory, even though ethoxyl may interfere. However, this latter is not likely to be encountered since ethoxyl has not been shown to be a constituent of the pectin molecule. The results given by the procedure are in general inferior to those of volumetric methods. The reproducibility was tested on methyl esters and showed a minus error of 2 to 4%. The smallest amount of methoxyl which can be determined in this way is 20g. The method proposed here is a special application of a method which can be applied in general to the determination of methyl esters in organic substances, which will be the subject of a later paper in this series.

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Zusammenfassung Es wird ein Mikroverfahren zur Bestimmung der Methoxylgruppen in Pektinen angegeben, das auf der Freisetzung dieser Gruppen durch Verseifung, deren Umwandlung in Methylformiat und dessen Destillation in eine Vorlage von alkoholischem Hydroxylamin beruht. Das Methylformiat bildet damit Formhydroxamsäure, die als Eisen(III)-chelat kolorimetrisch bestimmt wird.Die Hydrolyse des Pektins wird bei 100° C in einem verschlossenen Rohr ausgeführt. Einen aliquoten Teil des Hydrolysates läßt man in einem schon früher beschriebenen Mikrodestillationsapparat mit überschüssiger Ameisensäure reagieren. Das Verfahren eignet sich für 1 bis 3 mg Pektin und erfordert für alle Teiloperationen 2^1/2 Stunden. Seine Spezifität ist befriedigend, obwohl Äthoxyl stören kann. Dessen Einwirkung ist jedoch wenig wahrscheinlich, da es nicht als Bestandteil des Pektinmoleküls nachgewiesen ist. Die Ergebnisse des Verfahrens sind im allgemeinen niedriger als die Resultate volumetrischer Methoden. Die Reproduzierbarkeit wurde an Methylestern überprüftund zeigte einen Minusfehler von 2 bis 4%. Die Mindestmenge bestimmbares Methoxyl beträgt 20g. Das vorgeschlagene Verfahren ist eine spezielle Anwendung einer allgemein für die Bestimmung von Methylestern in organischen Substanzen anwendbaren Methode, die Gegenstand einer weiteren Mitteilung dieser Serie sein wird.

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Resumen Se indica una microtécnica de valoración de metoxilos en pectinas, basada en la liberación del radical metilo éster por saponificación; en su conversion en formiato de metilo y en su simultanea destilación y recepción en hidroxilamina alcalinizada. El formiato de metilo se transforma así en ácido formohidroxámico, cuya determinación fotocolorimétrica se realiza como quelato férrico.Estas operaciones requieren efectuar la hidrólisis de la pectina en tubo cerrado y a 100° C, y en tomar una alícuota del hidrolizado, que se pasa con un exceso de ácido fórmico al aparato de microdestilación, detallado en comunicaciones anteriores. El método permite operar con 1 a 3 mg de pectina y todas las operaciones insumen unas dos y media horas. La técnica presenta condiciones satisfactorias de especificidad, pudiendo interferir los radicales etoxilos, cosa poco probable, pues no son reconocidos como componente de la molécula de pectina. Los resultados obtenidos, comparados con los del método titrimétrico, son por lo general inferiores a éste y su reproducibilidad, verificada con ésteres metílicos, tiene errores por defecto de un 2 a 4%. La cantidad mínima de metoxilo valorado alcanza a 20g. La técnica que se indica, es una aplicacion particular de otra de carácter general, aplicable a la valoración de ésteres metílicos en sustancias orgánicas, que será motivo de otra futura comunicación de esta serie.