Rapid Evaporation Solutions for Natural Product Extraction

Genevac reports on how their Rocket Synergy automated evaporator systems are replacing rotary evaporators as the tool of choice for rapid and sample-safe evaporation of natural product extracts.

Working with natural products to derive potential pharmaceutical drug candidates or to identify new flavours and fragrances has a reputation of being very difficult. Sample collection, preparation, extraction and drying are extremely labour intensive and not easily reproducible from a process standpoint. The traditional bottleneck in the natural product pipeline has been the drying of solvent extracted samples. Historically natural product researchers have used rotary evaporators to remove solvent from the extract, a tedious process that sometimes can take days per sample.

Recently researchers have found the unique design of the Rocket Synergy used in conjunction with Genevac SampleGenie technology has allowed them to dry down samples in just 1–2 hours under low vacuum and low temperature conditions which do affect the integrity of the sample.

The Rocket Synergy is able to dry or concentrate up to six flasks, each containing a maximum of 450 mL of solvent, or 18 ASE vials, with no user intervention or attention. To extend operational versatility the Rocket Synergy flask rotor may be quickly removed and replaced with a stainless steel vessel allowing unattended automated batch processing of up to 5 L per run. It has been found that a single Rocket Synergy evaporator is capable of replacing several rotary evaporators, saving valuable bench space and improving productivity.