Antibiotic purification process

Claim 1

A process for providing the antibiotic carminomycin 1 in purified form from crude fermentation solids containing said antibiotic which comprises the consecutive steps of (1) slurrying crude fermentation solids containing carminomycin 1 with methylene chloride and filtering said slurry to recover the filter cake; (2) washing the filter cake with water; (3) extracting the filter cake from step (2) with methanol and recovering a solid from the concentrated filtered extract by concentration to dryness or precipitation with an antisolvent; (4) dissolving the solid from step (3) in equal volumes of the upper and lower phases of the solvent system consisting of methylene chloride, ethanol, carbon tetrachloride and water (2:1:2:1 v/v); said dissolution being accomplished by first dissolving the solid in a 1:1 (v/v) mixture of methylene chloride and ethanol and then adding to this solution ethanol, carbon tetrachloride, solvent upper phase of the system CCl 4 :CH 2 Cl 2 :C 2 H 5 OH:H 2 O (2:1:2:1) (v/v) and water in that order in an amount sufficient to provide a final solvent system as defined above; (5) subjecting said solution of step (4) to a countercurrent distribution procedure, said procedure comprising the consecutive steps of: (a) providing a countercurrent distribution apparatus having a plurality of packed solvent columns connected in series, said columns being packed with conventional glass or ceramic column packing material; (b) filling all except the first column with the upper phase of the solvent system CCl 4 :CH 2 Cl 2 :C 2 H 5 OH:H 2 O (2:1:2:1) (v/v); (c) filling the first column with the upper phase of the solution from step (4); (d) dispersing the lower phase of the solution from step (4) through the columns while collecting samples of the effluent from the last column until all of the solvent has been employed; (e) dispersing the lower phase of the solvent system CCl 4 :CH 2 Cl 2 :C 2 H 5 OH:H 2 O (2:1:2:1) (v/v) through the columns while collecting samples of the effluent from the last column until thin layer chromatographic analysis of the various samples and solutions in the columns indicates cessation of any significant separation of components; (f) analyzing the samples taken and the solutions from the columns by thin layer chromatography to detect the carminomycin 1-rich solvent fractions; (g) combining the carminomycin 1-rich solvent fractions and recovering the impure carminomycin 1 solids from said combined fractions; (6) dissolving the solids from step (5) in chloroform:methanol (17:3) (v/v); (7) adsorbing the solution from step (6) on silica gel which has been slurried with chloroform:methanol (17:3) (v/v) and adjusted to a pH of about 7-9; and (8) eluting the components of the impure carminomycin 1 mixture with a solvent system consisting of chloroform:methanol (17:3) (v/v) to produce purified carminomycin 1.