Synthesis and application of dehydroabietylisothiocyante as a new chiral derivatizing agent for the enantiomeric separation of chiral compounds by capillary electrophoretic

A new chiral derivatizing reagent, dehydroabietylisothiocyante (DHAIC), was synthesized and used for the enantiomeric separation of chiral compounds in capillary electrophoresis (CE). The synthetic route to obtain DHAIC is described. The separation conditions for the chiral separation of several chiral compounds, such as protein amino acids and chiral drug DOPA were optimized. Best results for the chiral separation of DHAIC derivatized amino acids and DOPA were obtained in a running buffer consisted of 50 mM borate (pH 9.5), 5 mM sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and 20% acetonitrile for amino acids and 60 mM Na₂HPO₄ (pH 8.0), 17 mM SDS and 25% acetonitrile for DOPA. Under the conditions studied, chiral separation of five amino acids including Ser, Val, Ala, Thr, Cys and a chiral drug DOPA as their diastereomeric DHAIC derivatives has been achieved by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC).