Column chromatography

COLUMN CHROMATOGRAPHY

Chromatography of lipids using a glass column filled with a suitable material is a common and useful method for fractionation of lipid classes either on an analytical or a semi-preparative scale. While this methodology leads to fractions which need to be later quantified, HPLC allows to separate and quantify lipid compounds in a single process if a convenient detector is present.

Two types of column (or liquid) chromatography are generally used:

1. adsorption chromatography

procedure which separates lipid mixtures mainly according to their relative polarities

2. ion-exchange chromatography

procedure which is based on the importance of ionic groups present in some lipid molecules