Some applications of chiral liquid affinity chromatography using bovine serum albumin as a stationary phase.

The enantioselectivity excerted by many proteins can be utilized for direct optical resolution in liquid chromatographic processes whereby the protein is used as a stationary phase. Bovine serum albumin (BSA), covalently bound to a suitable support, has been shown to act as a chiral discriminator for a variety of racemic organic compounds in aqueous buffers. Columns packed with BSA-silica can be used for determination of enantiomeric composition in aqueous solvents at very low concentrations by HPLC. This technique opens up new possibilities for the preparative isolation of micrograms amounts of enantiomers and for studies of stereoselectivity and mechanisms in enzymatic and microbial reactions.