Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography of macrolide antibiotics. Separation of tylosin, erythromycin and their related substances.

The separation of tylosin by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with a mixed micelle system is described. Good selectivity was obtained with sodium phosphate buffer (80 mM, pH 7.5) containing 20 mM sodium cholate and 7 mM cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). This method permits tylosin to be separated from its closely related substances within 15 min. The influences of type of buffer, buffer pH, the concentrations of sodium cholate and CTAB were investigated. The robustness of the method was examined for tylosin by means of a full-fraction factorial design. Quantitative results are presented. Using a similar buffer system (80 mM sodium phosphate, pH 6.0, 20 mM sodium cholate and 5 mM CTAB), separation of erythromycin and its main related substances was also obtained. However, detection sensitivity and resolution are not sufficient for analysis of related substances in erythromycin commercial samples.