Collagenase-Assisted Extraction of Pharmaceutical Compounds

Researchers from Banyu Pharmaceutical Co. (Ibaraki, Japan) used a novel extraction method to prepare drugs in gelatin capsules for analysis by high performance liquid chromatography. In the method, collagenase degraded the gelatin into fragments with reduced hydrophobicity, which allowed the immediate elution of gelatin-related peaks and eliminated interference with the drug peak. Gelatin has a strong UV absorption that can overlap with drug absorbances. The method eliminates powder loss caused by opening a gelatin capsule manually.