1 Department of Analytical Chemistry and Drug Analysis, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology “George Emil Palade” of Târgu Mureș, Romania
2 Department of Pharmaceutical and Therapeutic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology “George Emil Palade” of Târgu Mureș, Romania
The enantiomers of chiral drugs may differ in pharmacological activity, efficacy, and safety, making their reliable enantioseparation important for pharmaceutical analysis. The enantioseparation of three aryl propionic acid-derived nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and carprofen) was investigated by high-performance liquid chromatography using polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases. Two amylose-based and four cellulose-based columns were tested using acidified water-acetonitrile mobile phases. The effects of the chiral selector, mobile-phase composition, column length, and temperature were examined. Lux® Amylose-1 provided baseline separation of ibuprofen and carprofen, while Lux® Amylose-2 separated carprofen and gave only partial separation of ketoprofen. Lux® Cellulose-3 gave the best overall results, with baseline separation of ibuprofen and carprofen on both the 150 and 250 mm columns. Lux® Cellulose-1 separated only carprofen, whereas Lux® Cellulose-2 did not separate any of the three compounds. Ketoprofen could not be baseline resolved under the conditions tested. The results show that enantioselectivity was determined mainly by the chemical structure of the chiral selector rather than by the cellulose or amylose backbone alone.