Chiral separation of basic drugs by capillary electrophoresis with carboxymethylcyclodextrins

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) with carboxymethylated β- or γ-cyclodextrins was used to achieve the rapid enantiomeric separation of a set of basic drugs. The enantiomers of 12 chiral amino-containing pharmaceutical compounds belonging to various therapeutic categories were analyzed by CE using an uncoated 60 cm×75 μm I.D. silica capillary. Several experimental parameters such as the nature, concentration and pH of the buffer, nature and concentration of the anionic cyclodextrin and temperature were studied in order to optimize the enantiomeric separation. The variation of the solute partition coefficient for the chiral selector, the enantioselectivity and resolution factors are used to assess the quality of the chiral separation. It is shown that the solute affinity for the chiral selector is not related to its enantioresolution factor. None of the two cyclodextrin selectors used was able to separate the whole set of basic drugs.