Chiral capillary electrophoretic method for quantification of apomorphine

A new method for chiral determination of apomorphine enantiomers was developed and validated. Seven different neutral and charged cyclodextrins were tested for enantioselectivity on R,S-apomorphine. Sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin was found to offer the best resolution, but with this system, four peaks were detected from a solution of the two enantiomers, which was suggested to be the result of different forms of the complex between the selector and apomorphine. A complexation constant was estimated for a complex of 1:1 ratio for the second and the fourth peak, whereas the other two peaks were fitted to a model ratio of 1:2 (analyte–selector). To avoid this phenomenon, hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin was then chosen as the chiral selector. An optimisation study was performed on three factors: concentration of the chiral selector, pH of the buffer, and applied voltage. Optimum conditions were: 14 mM of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin, pH 3.0, and 16 kV. UV detection was at 200 nm. The method was validated at the chosen conditions, offering a limit of detection of 0.2 μM and a limit of quantification of 0.5 μM. The validated method was applied for the determination of R,S-apomorphine in a transport study with an in vitro cell culture model of the intestinal mucosa (Caco-2).