Anthony had given some good advice. In addition, Any organic solvent may be helpful. We often use methanol and chloroform.
================= 2007-7-19 6:12, your message: Re: [ccp4bb] advice for crystallizing hydrophobic small molecules================= Hi Todd I have worked in the past with crystallization of dozens of small molecules, several of them steroids which are hydrophobic. What I did was, first get the small molecule into the solution. The solvent can be dimethyl formamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, chloroform or anything that I can find on my shelf. Also hydrophobic solvents like benzene, hexane etc. Leave the compound in the semi-open containers and hope for crystals to appear. Some times I also used to poison the solution by adding other solvents that include water. Here, I should say that steroids crystalize really well, at least those I synthesized. People, some times use crystallization techniques similar to protein like hanging or sitting drops for some small molecules, particularly those are water soluble. Good luck Anthony ________________________________ Anthony Addlagatta, PhD Institute of Molecular Biology University of Oregon Eugene, OR-97403 Phone: (541) 346-5867 Fax: (541)346-5870 Web: http://uoregon.edu/~anthony On Jul 18, 2007, at 2:56 PM, Green, Todd wrote: > Hello all, > > I am asking this question for a colleague(a chemist not a > crystallographer) who would like to crystallize a small molecule > (for clarification this is just the small molecule not a protein > complex). The compound is quite hydrophobic and is rather "greasy." > He has a free alcohol which could be a site of modification if this > would help. I have only worked with proteins and was hoping that > someone might be knowledgible and could point me in the direction > of some help(literature, websites, etc) that might aide as a ground > level tutorial on crystallization of small molecules, and if > possible more specifically crystallization of hydrophobic/"greasy" > small molecules. > > Thanks in advance- > Todd Green > University of Alabama at Birmingham > . ============================================================================================ Sincerely yours, Li Sheng 2007-07-19 __________________________________________ Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Institutes for Biological Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences 320 Yue-Yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China Tel: +86-21-5492-1217 __________________________________________
