Capillary electrophoretic chiral separation of Cinchona alkaloids using a cyclodextrin selector

A new capillary electrophoretic method for the chiral separation of four major Cinchona alkaloids (quinine/quinidine and cinchonine/cinchonidine) was developed using heptakis-(2,6-di-O-methyl)-beta-cyclodextrin as the chiral selector. The inner walls of the separation capillary were modified with a thin polyacrylamide layer, which substantially reduced the electroosmotic flow and improved the chiral resolution and the reproducibility of the migration time of the analytes. Various operation parameters were optimised, including the pH, the capillary temperature, the concentration of the background electrolyte, and the concentration of the chiral selector. Baseline separation of the two diastereomer pairs was achieved in 12 minutes in ammonium acetate background electrolyte pH 5.0 with addition of cyclodextrin in a concentration of 3 mM or higher.