Purification of commercial acriflavine by Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography

Acriflavine supplies commercially was purified by removing contaminating proflavine by chromatography on a column of Sephadex LH-20 eluded with 65% methanol. The purified acriflavine, recovered in a yield that was 52% of the theoretical maximum, had a visible absorption maximum of 452 nm with a band width of 47 nm. These spectral properties agreed with those of acriflavine purified by precipitation, repeated recrystallization and chromatography on aluminum oxide, which results in a yield of 13% at best.