Chiral separation of chloroquine using heparin as a chiral selector in high-performance liquid chromatography.

The chiral selectivity of a commercially available heparin affinity column was investigated for chloroquine. The (+) enantiomer eluted first, which is consistent with results reported previously using heparin as a chiral additive in capillary zone electrophoresis. The effects of pH, ionic strength, and organic modifier on the enantiodiscrimination were explored. A combination of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions seems to play an important role in the enantiodiscrimination exhibited by this novel phase.