Separating Acidic Seaweed-Derived Sugars from Salt Using Shodex Columns

Record: 691

Category: Column Selection
Product: DC-613
Sample: Sugars

Question

A customer currently uses a Sephadex LH-20 open column to separate a seaweed-derived acidic sugar from salt and can isolate only a few milligrams. They are now seeking an ion-exchange or similar open-column option that can be scaled to gram-level purification. The sugars are acidic, water-soluble, and compatible with organic solvents.
Does Shodex offer a suitable column?

Answer

Shodex does not manufacture a direct open-column equivalent to Sephadex LH-20 for gram-scale purification. However, Shodex can support analytical-scale method development using the Asahipak DC-613, which is well-suited for understanding how to separate sugars from inorganic salts before transferring the workflow to preparative-scale resins.

DC-613 is a polymer-based multimode column capable of separating mono-, di-, and acidic oligosaccharides while allowing inorganic salts to elute near the void. This behavior closely matches the customer’s goal of removing salts while retaining the target sugar.

Key application:
Sugar Separation in Presence of Na Salt – DC-613

This application demonstrates that DC-613 can effectively separate sugars from sodium salts, making it a logical first step in recreating or optimizing the customer’s current LH-20 workflow at analytical scale.

Additional DC-613 applications reinforcing its use for hydrophilic sugars:

• Mono-, Di-, and Trisaccharides – DC-613
• Saccharide Analysis in Ionic Liquid – DC-613

While these columns are analytical and not preparative, they provide the mechanistic insight needed to determine whether ion-exchange, multimode, or hydrophilic partitioning is most appropriate before recommending a preparative-format resin.

To determine whether a preparative ion-exchange, mixed-mode, or size-based resin would be suitable, we first need more information about the specific analytes. Preparative strategies depend heavily on whether the target is a mono-, oligo-, or polysaccharide, its approximate molecular weight or degree of polymerization, and the type of acidic functionality present (e.g., sulfated, uronic acid, or carboxylated groups). It is also important to know the required purity level and the approximate gram-scale load per batch. Because these factors dictate the appropriate mechanism for preparative purification, we recommend beginning with an analytical evaluation using DC-613 to understand the separation behavior. Please contact us at support@shodexhplc.com with these details so we can identify the most suitable preparative path.

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