Thin-Layer Chromatographic Separations of Amino Acids on Stannic Tungstate

Abstract

Thin-layer chromatography of 24 important amino acids in aqueous and mixed solvent systems has been performed on stannic tungstate ion-exchange material. Results of these studies reveal that the stannic tungstate thin-layers offer promising potentialities for the separation of amino acids. The various solvent system which have been studied, acetone-formic acid-water and ethylacetate-formic acid are found to be most useful. It is interesting to note that DL-3,4 dihydro-xyphenylalanine (DHPA∗) has been selectively separated from a mixture of a number of amino acids in ethylacetate formic acid systems. Moreover, specific separations of DL-methionine has been achieved from a synthetic mixture of other amino acids chromatographed. Aspartic acid and glutamic acid which belong to mono-aminodicarboxylic acid type have been sharply separated from each other in n-butanol- acetic acid and acetone-formic acid-water systems. A large number of other important and difficult ternary and binary separations have also been practically achieved.