Evaluation of clarithromycin lactobionate as a novel chiral selector for enantiomeric separation of basic drugs in capillary electrophoresis

Nowadays, macrocyclic antibiotics are presenting an increasing number of enantioseparation applications. The macrocyclic antibiotics used as chiral selectors in capillary electrophoresis (CE) include the ansamycins and the glycopeptides. The macrolides, another important class of macrocyclic antibiotics, have been reported as a new type of chiral selectors recently. In this study, clarithromycin lactobionate (CL), belonging to the group of macrolide antibiotics, was first investigated for its potential as a novel chiral selector in CE for enantiomeric separation of several basic drugs. As observed, CL allowed excellent separation of the enantiomers of metoprolol, atenolol, propranolol, bisoprolol, esmolol, ritodrine, and amlodipine, as well as partial enantioresolution of labetalol and nefopam. In addition, CL possesses advantages such as high solubility and low viscosity in the solvent and very weak UV absorption. In the course of this study, it was found that both migration times and enantioseparation of the basic drugs were influenced by several experimental parameters, e.g. selector concentration, the composition and pH of the BGE, the type and concentration of organic modifier, and applied voltage. Thus, the effects of these factors were systematically investigated, and satisfactory enantioseparations of the studied drugs were achieved at the buffer pH range of 7.3–7.5 using 12.5 mM borax buffer with 50% v/v methanol, 60 mM CL, and 20 kV applied voltage. Moreover, comparison of the influences of the studied parameters was further investigated by means of Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) in this article.