High-performance liquid chromatographic and capillary electrophoretic enantioseparation of plant growth regulators and related indole compounds using macrocyclic antibiotics as chiral selectors

Enantioseparation of plant growth regulators, such as 3-(3-indolyl)-butyric acid, abscisic acid and structurally related molecules including a variety of substituted tryptophan compounds, has been achieved by HPLC and/or CE. The covalently bonded macrocyclic antibiotics, teicoplanin, ristocetin A and vancomycin, were used as chiral stationary phases (CSPs) in HPLC. Most of the racemates were baseline resolved in the reversed-phase mode (EtOH-H2O) using the teicoplanin CSP. The chiral recognition mechanism is discussed in regard to the structure of the analytes. In CE, the three aforementioned macrocyclic antibiotics were used as chiral additives in a phosphate run buffer. The effect of pH and the concentration of the organic modifiers were considered. The results obtained by HPLC and CE were compared.