Chiral Separation of Carboprost Isomers by Normal Phase LC Using Amylose Chiral Stationary Phase

LC separation of carboprost diastereomers in bulk drug was developed and validated using normal-phase amylose stationary phase Chiralpak AD-H. The effect of the organic modifiers, namely 2-propanol and ethanol in the mobile phase was optimized in order to obtain the best separation. The retention time of (R)-carboprost and (S)-carboprost were 15.3 and 17.1 min, respectively. Calibration curves were linear over the range of 0.2–1.0%, with the regression coefficient (R ²) of 0.9997. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.07 and 0.2%, respectively. The method was accurate, precise and suitable to use for the purpose of controlling unwanted (R)-isomer in the carboprost active pharmaceutical ingredient. This method can be successfully applied to the analysis of chiral purity of carboprost in pharmaceutical bulk drug samples.