On‐line two‐dimensional LC: A rapid and efficient method for the determination of enantiomeric excess in reaction mixtures

A novel LC‐based method for the determination of enantiomeric excess (ee) in a sample mixture has been developed by employing on‐line 2D LC. The orthogonal separation system is composed of an NH₂ column as the first dimension to elute the target chiral compound from the crude mixture and a chiral column as the second dimension to determine the ee of the target chiral product. A series of crude mixtures from asymmetric reactions have been directly analyzed without prepurification. Good reproducibility (intra‐ and interday precisions were all under 1.33%) and good accuracy (deviations from ee values determined by 1D HPLC were all <1.03%) have been obtained. Compared with the traditional method for the determination of ee, on‐line 2D HPLC can be used in real time and holds great potential in the time‐saving determination of ee in asymmetric synthesis.     

Nickel(II)‐assisted enantiomeric differentiation and quantitation of tadalafil by direct electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A facile method based on electrospray mass spectrometry was established and validated for the differentiation of enantiomeric tadalafil isomers without using chiral chromatographic separation. The enantiomers were coupled with a chiral selector to form diastereomeric complex ions. Nickel–tadalafil complexes, [Ni^II(tadalafil)(l ‐Trp)‐H]⁺, produced a characteristic fragment ion at m /z 524 by loss of 1‐methyl‐1,6‐dihydropyrazine‐2,5‐dione via collision‐induced dissociation. The relative abundance of this fragment ion to the precursor contributed to differentiate tadalafil enantiomers, and energy‐resolved product‐ion spectra were applied to determine the molar composition of tadalafil in the mixture (R ,R and S ,S ) as well. In addition, the other two forms of stereomeric isomers of tadalafil (R ,S and S ,R ) could be also distinguished and analyzed by this method. The method was validated in different types of mass spectrometers (AB quadrupole time‐of‐flight and Bruker ion trap) and also verified by a chiral high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time‐of‐flight. The chiral determination of tadalafil using MS method proved to be rapid (1‐min run time for each sample) and to have the same accuracy and precision comparable to chiral liquid chromatography mass spectrometry methods. This method provides an alternative to commonly used chromatographic technique for chiral determination and is particularly useful in rapid screening in enantioselective synthesis and enantiomeric impurity detection in pharmaceutical industry. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enantioselective analysis of venlafaxine and its active metabolites: A review on the separation methodologies

Venlafaxine (VFX) is a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor chiral drug used in therapy as an antidepressant in the form of a racemate consisting of R‐ and S‐VFX. The two enantiomers of VFX exhibit different pharmacological activities: R‐VFX inhibits both norepinephrine and serotonin synaptic reuptake, whereas S‐VFX inhibits only the serotonin one. R‐ and S‐VFX are metabolized in the liver to the respective R‐ and S‐O‐desmethylvenlafaxine (ODVFX), R‐ and S‐N‐desmethylvenlafaxine (NDVFX), and R‐ and S‐N,O‐didesmethylvenlafaxine (NODVFX). The pharmacological profile of ODVFX is close to that of VFX, whereas the other two chiral metabolites (NDVFX and NODVFX) have lower affinity for the receptor sites. The pharmacokinetics of the VFX enantiomers appear stereoselective, including the metabolism process. In the past 20 years, several studies describing the enantioselective analysis of R‐ and S‐VFX in pharmaceutical formulations and its chiral metabolites in biological matrices were published. These methods encompass liquid chromatography coupled with UV detection, mass spectrometry, or tandem mass spectrometry, and capillary electrophoresis. This paper reviews the published methods used for the determination of the individual enantiomers of VFX and its chiral metabolites in different matrices.     

Methods and approaches for determination and enantioseparation of (RS)‐propranolol

Propranolol, a β‐adrenergic receptor antagonist, is a chiral compound that is marketed as a racemate, but only the (S)‐(?)‐enantiomer is responsible for the β‐adrenoceptor blocking activity. Different chromatographic methods have been applied for separation and determination of enantiomers of (RS)‐propranolol. In this article a review is presented on different liquid chromatographic methods used for enantioseparation of (RS)‐propranolol, using both HPLC and TLC. In addition, some aspects of enantioseparation under achiral phases of liquid chromatography have been briefly mentioned.     

Laser Mass Spectrometry with Circularly Polarized Light: Circular Dichroism of Cold Molecules in a Supersonic Gas Beam

An experiment on chiral molecules that combines circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, mass‐selective detection by laser mass spectrometry (MS), and cooling of molecules by using a supersonic beam is presented. The combination of the former two techniques (CD–laser‐MS) is a new method to investigate chiral molecules and is now used by several research groups. Cooling in a supersonic beam supplies a substantial increase in spectroscopic resolution, a feature that has not yet been used in CD spectroscopy. In the experiments reported herein, a large variation in the electronic CD of carbonyl 3‐methylcyclopentanone was observed depending on the excited vibrational modes in the n→π* transition. This finding should be of interest for the detection of chiral molecules and for the theoretical understanding of the CD of vibronic bands. It is expected that this effect will show up in other chiral carbonyls because the n→π* transition is typical for the carbonyl group.     

Enantiomeric Separation and Determination of R,S-Salsolinol by Capillary Electrophoresis

A new method for the quantitative determination of the enantiomers of salsolinol, an endogenous neurotoxin, was reported. Enantiomeric separation of salsolinol was obtained by capillary zone electrophoresis using hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin （HP-β-CD） as chiral selector. Coupled with UV detection, this separation was applied to the determination of R,S-salsolinol in dried banana chips, and both R- and S-salsolinol were found at 40 ktg/g level.     

Resolution and isolation of enantiomers of (±)‐isoxsuprine using thin silica gel layers impregnated with l‐glutamic acid,comparison of separation of its diastereomers prepared with chiral derivatizing reagents having l‐amino acids as chiral auxiliaries

Thin silica gel layers impregnated with optically pure l ‐glutamic acid were used for direct resolution of enantiomers of (±)‐isoxsuprine in their native form. Three chiral derivatizing reagents, based on DFDNB moiety, were synthesized having l ‐alanine, l ‐valine and S‐benzyl‐l ‐cysteine as chiral auxiliaries. These were used to prepare diastereomers under microwave irradiation and conventional heating. The diastereomers were separated by reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography on a C₁₈ column with detection at 340 nm using gradient elution with mobile phase containing aqueous trifluoroacetic acid and acetonitrile in different compositions and by thin‐layer chromatography (TLC) on reversed phase (RP) C₁₈ plates. Diastereomers prepared with enantiomerically pure (+)‐isoxsuprine were used as standards for the determination of the elution order of diastereomers of (±)‐isoxsuprine. The elution order in the experimental study of RP‐TLC and RP‐HPLC supported the developed optimized structures of diastereomers based on density functional theory. The limit of detection was 0.1–0.09 µg/mL in TLC while it was in the range of 22–23 pg/mL in HPLC and 11–13 ng/mL in RP‐TLC for each enantiomer. The conditions of derivatization and chromatographic separation were optimized. The method was validated for accuracy, precision, limit of detection and limit of quantification. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitive enantioseparation and determination of isoprenaline in human plasma and pharmaceutical formulations

A simple, sensitive and fast RPHPLC method was developed and validated for the enantioselective determination of (RS)‐isoprenaline (Ipn) in human plasma. The enantiomers were converted to diastereomeric derivatives using s‐triazine (cyanuric chloride) based chiral derivatizing reagents. l ‐isoleucine and l ‐methionine were introduced as chiral auxiliary in s‐triazine and two new monochloro‐s‐triazine reagents were synthesized. These reagents were characterized and used for synthesis of diastereomeric derivatives of (RS)‐Ipn spiked in human plasma. (RS)‐Ipn was isolated (purified and characterized) from a commercial pharmaceutical formulation and was used as the standard racemic sample. Structures of the two diastereomeric derivatives were optimized for lowest energy using the Gaussian 09 Rev A. 02 program and hybrid density functional B3LYP with 6‐31G* basis set which showed the spatial orientation of hydrophobic groups on stereogenic centers in the diastereomeric derivatives. The results were correlated with the mechanism of separation and elution order. Limit of detection values were found to be 24.6 and 26.8 ng mL^?1 for the first and second eluting diastereomeric derivatives, respectively.     

Liquid chromatographic methods for separation,determination, and bioassay of enantiomers of etodolac: A review

The control of enantiomeric purity and determination of individual enantiomeric drug molecules remains the subject of importance for clinical, analytical, and regulatory purposes and to facilitate an accurate evaluation of the risks posed by them to human health. A large number of pharmaceuticals are marketed and administered as racemates. Etodolac is among such nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs. Overall literature reports on its enantioseparation are scanty. Liquid chromatography (LC) methods of enantioseparation of (±)‐etodolac, including certain unconventional ones, are well covered and discussed in this paper. Methods of direct approach without using chiral columns or chiral thin‐layer chromatography plate and of indirect approach using certain chiral derivatizing agents such as (S)‐naproxen and (S)‐levofloxacin are described. Most interesting aspects include establishment of structure and molecular asymmetry of chemically different types of diastereomeric derivatives using liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC–MS), ¹H NMR spectroscopy and by drawing conformations in three dimensional views by using certain software. The methods provide chirality recognition even in the absence of pure enantiomers. Besides, recovery of pure enantiomers by detagging or via solubility difference of chiral inducing reagent and the analyte, without racemization at any stage, has been achieved. The limits of detection and quantification are much lower than the industry benchmarks.     

Use of chiral derivatization for the determination of dichlorprop in tea samples by ultra performance LC with fluorescence detection

Dichlorprop is available for agricultural use as a chiral pesticide. In this study, the stereoselective determination of dichlorprop enantiomers in tea samples such as green, black, jasmine, and oolong was developed by ultra performance LC with fluorescence spectrometry after covalent chiral derivatization. The separation was achieved on an Acquity BEH C18 column with the mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile/water at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. In the covalent chiral derivatization using (S)‐(+)‐4‐(N,N‐dimethylaminosulfonyl)‐7‐(3‐aminopyrrolidin‐1‐yl)‐2,1,3‐benzoxadiazole, the peak resolution between the S and R‐dichlorprop enantiomers was 2.6. LODs and LOQs values were 10 and 50 ng/mL standard solution. The linearity of the calibration curves yielded the coefficients (r² > 0.99, ranging from 0.05 to 5 μg/mL) of determination of each of the dichlorprop enantiomers. SPE extraction was used for the sample preparation of dichlorprop in various tea samples. Recoveries were in the range of 82.4–97.6% with associated precision values (within‐day: 82.4–95.8%, n = 6, and between‐day: 83.7–97.6% for 3 days) for repeatability and reproducibility. Based on this result, our method has been proven to be highly efficient and suitable for the routine assay of dichlorprop enantiomers in various tea samples. We propose that the ultra performance LC assay after covalent chiral derivatization would be the renewed tools in the era of chiral stationary platform for chiral pesticide residues in foods.     

Reversed‐phase liquid chromatographic determination of enantiomers of atenolol in rat plasma using derivatization with Marfey's reagent

An HPLC method was established for enantioseparation of (R,S)‐atenolol (ATE) and determination of enantiomers in rat plasma. Marfey's reagent (1‐fluoro‐2,4‐dinitrophenyl‐5‐L‐alanine amide, FDNP‐L‐Ala‐NH₂, MR) was used as chiral derivatizing reagent with detection of diastereomers at 340 nm. It was shown that the R‐isomer eluted before the S‐isomer. The method was validated for linearity, repeatability, limits of detection and limit of quantification (LOQ). Recovery of ATE at LOQ was 92.8% for (R)‐ATE and 92.6% for (S)‐ATE. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Facile Circular Dichroism Protocol for Rapid Determination of Enantiomeric Excess and Concentration of Chiral Primary Amines

A protocol for the rapid determination of the absolute configuration and enantiomeric excess (ee) of α‐chiral primary amines with potential applications in asymmetric reaction discovery has been developed. The protocol requires derivatization of α‐chiral primary amines through condensation with pyridine carboxaldehyde to quantitatively yield the corresponding imine. The Cu^I complex with 2,2′‐bis (diphenylphosphino)‐1,1′‐dinaphthyl (BINAP? Cu^I) with the imine yields a metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer (MLCT) band in the visible region of the circular dichroism (CD) spectrum upon binding. Diastereomeric host–guest complexes give CD signals of the same signs but different amplitudes, allowing for differentiation of enantiomers. Processing the primary optical data from the CD spectrum with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) allows for the determination of the absolute configuration and identification of the amines, and processing with a supervised multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP‐ANN) allows for the simultaneous determination of the ee and concentration. The primary optical data necessary to determine the ee of unknown samples is obtained in two minutes per sample. To demonstrate the utility of the protocol in asymmetric reaction discovery, the ee values and concentrations for an asymmetric metal‐catalyzed reaction are determined. The potential of the application of this protocol in high‐throughput screening (HTS) of ee is discussed.     

Enantiomeric separation of R,S‐tolterodine and R,S‐methoxytolterodine with negatively charged cyclodextrins by capillary electrophoresis

The methods for separation of R,S‐tolterodine and R,S‐methoxytolterodine enantiomers using sulfated α‐, β‐CD and phosphated‐γ‐CD by CE in acidic BGE based on Tris/phosphate pH 2.5 buffer were developed. Sulfated α‐ and β‐CD allow anodic detection while phosphated‐γ‐CD allows only cathodic detection of the separated enantiomers. The influence of chiral selector (CS)'s concentration as well as the influence of composition and concentration of BGE on resolutions were studied. Reversal migration order of tolterodine and methoxytolterodine enantiomers was observed, when sulfated‐α‐ and sulfated‐β‐CD were used. The developed methods with all three studied CSs, were validated and compared. All proposed methods enable determination of 0.2% of S‐tolterodine as an optical impurity in pills, however the method with phosphated‐γ‐CD provided lower detection limit, better repeatability of peak areas and migration times, and also lower consumption of CS. Developed method employing phosphated‐γ‐CD that was applied for the determination of optical purity of R‐tolterodine in commercial pills.     

Stereoselective determination of dufulin in watermelon under field conditions using chiral ultra high performance liquid chromatography with high‐resolution mass spectrometry

An effective and sensitive chiral analytical method was established to investigate the stereoselective dissipation of rac‐dufulin in watermelon using ultra high performance liquid chromatography with a superchiral S‐OD chiral column (4.6 × 150 mm i.d., 5 μm) coupled with high‐resolution mass spectrometry. To optimize the pretreatment method for detecting rac‐dufulin in the three matrixes, different extraction solvents, extractant volumes, extraction times, and absorbents were investigated to improve extraction efficiency. Moreover, analysis of variance was used to perform method validation for determination of the two dufulin enantiomers in the three matrixes. Using the optimized method, good linearity was obtained (determination coefficient > 0.999). The limits of detection and quantification of the two dufulin enantiomers in soil, watermelon, and pulp were 0.15 and 0.5 μg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries of the two enantiomers in the three matrixes at four spiked levels ranged from 75.0 to 107.8%, with intra‐ and inter‐day relative standard deviations of 0.4–10.4%. In field trials, the R enantiomer was preferentially dissipated in watermelon. These method validation results confirmed that the developed method was convenient and reliable for the stereoselective determination of enantiomers of rac‐dufulin in watermelon.     

Sensitive Method for Enantioseparation of Rivastigmine with Highly Sulfated Cyclodextrin as Chiral Selector by Capillary Electrophoresis

A sensitive method for enantioseparation of a basic drug rivastigmine and determination of its optical impurityby capillary electrophoresis with highly sulfated β-cyclodextrin(HS-β-CD)as the chiral selector is described.Ingeneral,enantioseparation of basic chiral compounds is carried out in acidic condition(pH 2.5)to prevent analytesfrom adsorption on the capillary wall.However,in the case of rivastigmine,the detection sensitivity was too limitedto determine the optical impurity of S-rivastigmine lower than 1% when buffer pH was 2.5.It was found that thedetection sensitivity was improved 1.6 times just by raising the buffer pH value from 2.5 to 5.8.The poor columnefficiency due to the adsorption of the analytes on the capillary wall was resolved by using dynamical coating of thecapillary wall with the linear polyacrylamide solution.The experirnental parameters such as the concentration ofHS-β-CD,buffer pH and buffer ionic strength were optimized,respectively.The method was validated in terms ofrepeatability,linearity,limit of detection(LOD)and limit of quantitation(LOQ).Using the present method,the op-tical purity of nonracemic rivastigmine with the enantiomeric excess(ee)value of 99.14% was determined.     

Enantiomeric analysis of simendan on polysaccharide‐based stationary phases by polar organic solvent chromatography

Herein, the enantiomeric separation of simendan by high‐performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection using polysaccharide‐based chiral stationary phases in polar organic mode is described. Three chiral columns (Chiralpak AD‐H, Chiralcel OD‐H, and Chiralpak AS) were screened using pure methanol and acetonitrile without additives under isocratic conditions. A reversed elution order was observed on the Chiralpak AD‐H column when the methanol content in the mobile phase (methanol–acetonitrile mixtures) was above 10%, whereby levosimendan eluted prior to dextrosimendan. Further, it was found that increasing temperature effectively improved the enantioresolution on the Chiralpak AD‐H column. Van't Hoff analysis was performed to evaluate the contribution of enthalpy and entropy to the chiral discrimination process. The best enantioseparation (α = 3.00, Rs = 12.85) was obtained on the Chiralpak AD‐H column with methanol as the mobile phase at 40°C. Thus, a quantitative method for the resolution of dextrosimendan was established and validated, which could be used as a reference for the determination of dextrosimendan in levosimendan products.     

Stereoisomer separation of flavanones and flavanone‐7‐O‐glycosides by means of nanoliquid chromatography employing derivatized β‐cyclodextrins as mobile‐phase additive

A nanoliquid chromatographic method for the stereoisomer separation of some flavanone aglycones and 7‐O‐glycosides has been proposed employing a C18 capillary column and a chiral mobile‐phase additive such as cyclodextrin. The chiral separation of eriodictyol, naringenin, and hesperitin was obtained by addition of carboxymethyl‐β‐cyclodextrin to the mobile phase, whereas eriocitrin, naringin, narirutin, and hesperidin diastereoisomers were resolved by using sulfobutyl ether‐β‐cyclodextrin. The influence of the composition of the mobile phase, the length of the capillary column, and the flow rate on the chiral recognition were investigated. At optimum conditions, baseline separation for the selected aglycones and glycosylated forms were achieved with a mobile phase consisting of 50 mM sodium acetate buffer pH 3 and 30% methanol containing 20 mM of carboxymethyl‐β‐cyclodextrin and 10 mM of sulfobutyl ether‐β‐cyclodextrin, respectively. Precision, linearity, and sensitivity of the method were tested. Limits of detection and quantification for the studied flavanone glycosides were in the range 1.3‐2.5 and 7.5‐12.5 µg/mL, respectively. The method was used for the determination of the diastereomeric composition of the flavanone‐7‐O‐glycosides in Citrus juices after solid‐phase extraction procedure.     

Enantioseparation of tartaric acid by ligand‐exchange capillary electrophoresis using contactless conductivity detection

A method for the determination of tartaric acid enantiomers using CE with contactless conductivity detection has been developed. Cu(II) as a central metal ion together with l ‐hydroxyproline were used as a chiral selector, the BGE was composed of 7 mM CuCl_2, 14 mM trans‐4‐hydroxy‐l ‐proline, and 100 mM ε‐aminocaproic acid; the pH was adjusted to 5 by hydrochloric acid. Separation with a resolution of 1.9 was achieved in 9 min in a polyacrylamide‐coated capillary to suppress the EOF. Various counterions of the BGE were studied, and migration order reversal was achieved when switching from ε‐aminocaproic acid to l ‐histidine. With detection limits of about 20 μM, the method was applied to the analysis of wine and grape samples; only l ‐tartaric acid was found.     

Determination of the enantiomers of α‐hydroxy‐ and α‐amino acids in capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

The enantiomers of the anions of five α‐hydroxy acids, namely lactic acid, α‐hydroxybutyric acid, 2‐hydroxycaproic acid, 2‐hydroxyoctanoic acid and 2‐hydroxydecanoic acid, as well as the two α‐amino acids aspartic acid and glutamic acid, were baseline separated and detected by CE with contactless conductivity detection. Vancomycin was employed as chiral selector and could be used with conductivity detection without having to resort to a partial filling protocol as needed when this reagent is used with UV absorbance measurements. The procedure was successfully applied to the determination of the lactic acid enantiomers in samples of milk and yogurt. Linearity was achieved in the concentration range of 10–500 μmol/L with good correlation coefficients (0.9993 and 0.9990 for L ‐ and D ‐lactic acid, respectively). The LODs (3 S/N) for L ‐ and D ‐lactic acid were determined as 2.8 and 2.4 μmol/L, respectively.     

Tetra(p‐tolyl)borate‐Functionalized Solvent Polymeric Membrane: A Facile and Sensitive Sensing Platform for Peroxidase and Peroxidase Mimetics

The determination of peroxidase activities is the basis for enzyme‐labeled bioaffinity assays, peroxidase‐mimicking DNAzymes‐ and nanoparticles‐based assays, and characterization of the catalytic functions of peroxidase mimetics. Here, a facile, sensitive, and cost‐effective solvent polymeric membrane‐based peroxidase detection platform is described that utilizes reaction intermediates with different pK_a values from those of substrates and final products. Several key but long‐debated intermediates in the peroxidative oxidation of o‐phenylenediamine (o‐PD) have been identified and their charge states have been estimated. By using a solvent polymeric membrane functionalized by an appropriate substituted tetraphenylborate as a receptor, those cationic intermediates could be transferred into the membrane from the aqueous phase to induce a large cationic potential response. Thus, the potentiometric indication of the o‐PD oxidation catalyzed by peroxidase or its mimetics can be fulfilled. Horseradish peroxidase has been detected with a detection limit at least two orders of magnitude lower than those obtained by spectrophotometric techniques and traditional membrane‐based methods. As an example of peroxidase mimetics, G‐quadruplex DNAzymes were probed by the intermediate‐sensitive membrane and a label‐free thrombin detection protocol was developed based on the catalytic activity of the thrombin‐binding G‐quadruplex aptamer.