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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
Purification of synthetic all-E lycophyll (psi,psi-carotene-16,16'-diol)
Cristi L Braun1, Henry L Jackson, Samuel F Lockwood
1Hawaii Biotech, Inc., 99-193 Aiea Heights Drive, Suite 200, Aiea, HI 96701, USA.
Abstract:
An efficient purification of synthetic all-trans (all-E) lycophyll is described. The synthetic preparation of the rare xanthophyll lycophyll produces a mixture of geometric isomers. Purification by HPLC using reverse-phase C30 silica affords milligram quantities of the desired all-trans isomer in >95% purity, as confirmed by (1)H NMR and LC/MS. Most recently, a facile work-up of the geometric mixture formed during total synthesis was found to provide multigrams of the targeted all-E geometric isomer of lycophyll. The acquisition of modest quantities of this specific lycopene analog allows its therapeutic potential to be explored.
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