ABSTRACT
Countercurrent chromatography (CCC) is essentially a form of liquid-liquid partition chromatography in which the stationary liquid phase is retained in the apparatus without the use of a solid porous or adsorptive matrix (Conway 1990). The principle behind this method of separation involves partitioning of a solute between two immiscible liquid phases, and the relative ratio of the amount of solute passing into each of the two phases is determined by the respective partition ratio (KD) or partition coeffi cient (if only one solute form is involved) (Marston and Hostettmann 2006, Berthod 2009). A brief list of the main advantages of the technique includes (Conway
1Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Núcleo de Pesquisas de Produtos Naturais, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Bloco H, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, 21.941-902. aE-mail: ggleitao@nppn.ufrj.br bE-mail: farmfcosta@yahoo.com.br cE-mail: fabiana.farmacia@gmail.com *Corresponding author
1990, Marston and Hostettmann 1994): versatility; speed; high loading capacity; good resolution; economy; predictability and reproducibility; and total sample recovery without chemical modifi cations or loss of biological activity in bioassay-guided fractionations, among others.
