Aqueous Two-Phase Systems for the Recovery and Purification of Bioproducts from Plants and Vegetable Tissues Chapter in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG. Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) as a liquid-liquid biocompatible technology offer remarkable advantages for the extraction and purification of plant-derived bioproducts. Polymer-polymer, polymer/salt, and combinations of different ionic liquids are among the most recurrent systems for proteins and low molecular weight. It has been generally recognized that ATPS-based strategies could in turn produce highly purified products, decrease energy consumption, and reduce cost associated with the recovery and purification stages, when compared with traditional (chromatographic) operations. A wide variety of bioproducts ranging from phenolic compounds, aromas, carotenoids, and alkaloids have taken advantage of selectivity of ATPS for primary recovery up to large biomolecules such as proteins and enzyme complexes, and entire cells and organelles have been proposed to be treated using this ATPS technology. Selected examples highlight the main advantages of this technique, biocompatibility, process integration capability, and potential of scaling up. The later success stories demonstrate the potential application of ATPS-based strategies to address the major disadvantages of the traditional recovery and purification techniques and provide an alternative strategy to gradients for the isolation of subcellular components. The ability to produce recombinant proteins at the agricultural scale positions plants as an attractive host to lower the response time in the case of disease outbreaks or pandemics; however, efficient, reliable, and economical operation units need to be explored to avoid the high costs associated with traditional operation units, where this liquid-liquid biocompatible technology could contribute to the establishment of novel bioprocesses.

publication date

  • January 1, 2017