Effects of alcohols on CE enantioseparation of basic drugs with native gamma-CD as chiral selector.

The effects of alcohol on the CE enantioseparation of selected basic drugs with gamma-CD as the chiral selector was investigated. The enantioseparation behavior of the analytes with gamma-CD in the absence and presence of different alcohols specifically methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol (IPA), and 2-methyl-2-propanol (TBA), the relationship of enantiomeric resolution (R(s)) values with either hydrophobicity or bulkiness of the alcohols, as well as the effect of these alcohols on interaction of the analytes with gamma-CD were studied. Results showed that hydrophobicity and/or bulkiness of alcohols have an influence on the enantioresolution of most of the analytes based on the relatively high correlation coefficients (R) obtained between R(s) versus log P and between R(s) versus ovality (i.e., parameter to indicate bulkiness of a molecule). Comparison of the values of the average binding constants obtained for each enantiomeric pair in the presence and absence of 5% IPA showed that alcohols can increase, decrease, or give a minimal effect on the analyte-gamma-CD interaction depending on the analyte. Furthermore, the significant enhancement in the enantioresolution of both propranolol and pindolol in the presence of either IPA or TBA led to the baseline enantioresolution of both drugs using 35 mM gamma-CD.