A study on the chiral recognition mechanism of enantioseparation of adrenaline and its analogues using capillary electrophoresis

The purpose of this paper was to study the chiral recognition mechanism of enantioseparation of adrenaline and its analogues using capillary electrophoresis. The enantiomeric separation of adrenaline and its analogues has been developed using beta-cyclodextrins as the chiral selectors. All the tested compounds were separated under the same experimental conditions to study the chiral recognition mechanisms, using a low-pH buffer (50 mM Tris buffer at pH 2.5). By means of molecular docking the inclusion course between beta-cyclodextrins and enantiomers was investigated and thus the interaction energy was obtained by molecular mechanics calculations. The results suggest that the difference in interaction energy for the side chain part is most likely responsible for enantiomeric separation.