Abstract
Lactic acid, a biologically derived compound, exists ubiquitously in nature. Its existence ranges from human being to microorganisms. Having paramount industrial significance, lactic acid should be highly pure, devoid of any contaminants. Hence, development of minimum steps of platform technologies to purify it needs urgent attention. The article proposed a novel and simple process for separation of lactic acid from a potential substrate Zizyphus oenophlia, based on ion exchange chromatography. The process herein involves two steps of purification; firstly a weak anion exchange resin was used to separate lactic acid from other anions present in the broth. This was followed by use of strong cation exchanger which washes out the target molecule (lactic acid) while trapped other cations present in the solution. The selected ion exchangers were Amberlite IRA 96 and Amberlite IR 120. Amberlite IRA 96 retained the lactic acid from the broth while washing away other anions. Maximum binding capacity of the resin was found to 210.46 mg lactic acid/g bead. After the simple two-step purification process, the purity of lactic acid improves up to 99.17 % with a recovery yield of 98.9 %. Upon characterization, formation of only levo rotatory form of lactic acid confirms its easy metabolism by the human system, thus triggering its application towards biomaterial sector.