Chromatographic separation and enantiomeric resolution of flurbiprofen and its major metabolites

Summary The chromatographic separation and resolution of the enantiomers of flurbiprofen and its two major metabolites, 4′-hydroxyflurbiprofen and 3′-hydroxy-4′-methoxyflurbiprofen was investigated using four different approaches: reversed-phase HPLC after pre-column derivatization with (R)-1-(naphthen-1-yl)ethylamine; reversed-phase HPLC using hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin as a chiral mobile phase additive; chiral-phase HPLC using either an α₁-acid glycoprotein CSP (Chiral-AGP) or an amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) CSP (Chiralpak AD). Of all the approaches, only the direct method using the Chiralpak AD CSP demonstrated separation and enantiomeric resolution of all three analytes within an acceptable run time of 45 minutes. Enantiomeric resolution values of 1.67,3.67 and 3.44 were obtained for flurbiprofen, 4′-hydroxyflurbiprofen and 3′-hydroxy-4′-methoxyflurbiprofen respectively. Semi-preparative isolation of the individual enantiomers of both metabolites, followed by CD analysis, revealed that the elution order on the AD CSP wasR-beforeS-enantiomer for both metabolites and the same as that observed for flurbiprofen. The metabolite elution order was subsequently confirmed on the analysis of urine samples obtained from a healthy volunteer following oral administration of the individual drug enantiomers.