Analytical and preparative methods for polymyxin antibiotics using high-performance liquid chromatography with a porous styrene-divinyllbenzene copolymer packing

Abstract Polymyxin antibiotics, such as polymyxin A, B, D, E, K, M and P, circulin and colistin, are a complex of two or three components. These components have been succesfully separated on a porous styrene—divinylbenzene copolymer column with methanol—0.2 M potassium chloride/hydrochloric acid buffer (pH 2.0) (1:1) as mobile phase. Hitachi gel 3011 (particle size 10 μm) gave a good analytical separation of polymyxins using the isocratic mobile phase. In the preparation, all of the components of colistin and polymyxin B are separated by use of Hitachi gel 3010 (particle size 25 μm)or Amberlite XAD-2(100-200 mesh) packings. A new component of polymyxin B, named polymyxin B 0 , was deduced from the results of the amino acid and fatty acid analyses.