Capillary electrophoresis enantioselective separation of vigabatrin enantiomers by precolumn derivatization with dehydroabietylisothiocyante and UV–vis detection

A simple and reliable capillary electrophoresis (CE) method with UV–vis detection is presented for the enantioselective separation and determination of vigabatrin enantiomers. Dehydroabietylisothiocyante (DHAIC), a novel chiral derivatizing reagent, was used for precolumn derivatization of vigabatrin enantiomers. Optimal separation was obtained with a running buffer consisting of 50 mM Na2HPO4 (pH 9.0), 17 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 25% acetonitrile. The enantiomeric separation of vigabatrin derivatives was achieved within 25 min, and the resolution was found to be 2.1. Detection was followed by direct UV absorptiometric measurements at 202 nm. A calibration curve ranging from 0.3 to 6.0 μg/ml was shown to be linear, and the limit of detection was 0.15 μg/ml. The developed method has been applied to the determination of vigabatrin enantiomers spiked in human plasma, no interferences were found from endogenous amino acids.