I am trying to extract secondary metabolites from liquid cultures of actinobacteria/actinomycetes in order to test its antimicrobial potential against pathogenic bacteria. When using the rotary evaporator (at 50ºC, and cold bath at 10ºC) I can't evaporate all the solvent, leaving a liquid residue. I tried raising the temperature to 60ºC, but it also didn't work. During a mental breakdown, I decided to put this residue in the freezer, and I was surprised to see that it froze, since the freezing point of ethyl acetate is -84°C. Does this mean that this residue is aqueous? Can I freeze-dry it, or will it degrade my sample? Or is this residue really ethyl acetate that magically froze and will ruin my freeze-dryer? Or are my metabolites simply liquid? Or should I give up on my Master's (lol)? Thank you in advance, any help is welcome!
The residue from your ethyl acetate extraction likely contains water or other polar compounds, not just ethyl acetate. Consider freeze-drying the sample after verifying its composition.
What is the media used for liquid culture? it could possibly a load of lipid/fatty acids in EtOAc that will remain as oil and freeze at low temp.
Abdelhak Maghchiche how do I verify its composition? Our freeze dryer only works with water.
Prithwiraj De the fermentation was made on Mueller Hinton Broth.
The residue from your ethyl acetate extraction likely contains water or polar compounds, which is why it froze. Consider verifying its composition through methods like TLC or NMR, and you can proceed with freeze-drying to preserve your metabolites while removing water.
Can you brief the process of isolation and purification of the secondary metabolites?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Sampling Design
- Sample Size