Method of purifying antifungal compounds and exopolysaccharides from a microbial cell culture

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of enriching a lipopeptide in a microbial cell culture, the method comprising mixing an amphiphilic sulfonate and/or an amphiphilic sulfate with the cell culture to induce the formation of aggregates containing the lipopeptide, centrifuging the cell culture to generate a supernatant fraction and a pellet fraction, separating the pellet fraction from the supernatant fraction, and mixing the pellet fraction with a polyoxyethylene glycol alkyl ether to release the lipopeptide from the aggregates. Also provided is a method of purifying an exopolysaccharide from a microbial cell culture, the method comprising mixing an amphiphilic sulfonate and/or an amphiphilic sulfate with the cell culture to induce the formation of aggregates, centrifuging the cell culture to generate a supernatant fraction and a pellet fraction, separating the supernatant fraction from the pellet fraction, adding alcohol to the supernatant fraction to precipitate the exopolysaccharide; and removing the precipitated exopolysaccharide from the supernatant fraction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.