Use of a urea and guanidine-HCl-propanol solvent system to purify a growth inhibitory glycopeptide by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography was used to purify an inhibitory glycopeptide where resolution and recovery were enhanced by using urea or guanidine-HCl-isopropanol-water as a solvent system. Isopropanol alone or other solvent systems that have been proposed for such purification steps were not effective in eluting hydrophobic proteins from the reversed-phase column. The application of the urea or guanidine-HCl solvent systems in the separation and purification of membrane proteins, and other hydrophobic macromolecules, could greatly enhance recovery and efficiency of purification.