Resolution of the enantiomers of oxamniquine by capillary electrophoresis and high-performance liquid chromatography with cyclodextrins and heparin as chiral selectors.

The methods of separation of the enantiomers of the chiral drug oxamniquine are compared, between HPLC with either cyclodextrins and their related derivatives as chiral selectors in the mobile phase or immobilised in a chiral stationary phase (as Cyclobond I and II) and between capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) where the cyclodextrins are added to the buffer solution. The HPLC experiments, which included structured method optimisation were largely unsuccessful in resolving the enantiomers, with the exception of when a Chiral-AGP protein stationary phase was introduced into the programme. However although this chiral stationary phase provided baseline resolution of the enantiomers the stability of the method was suspect to small changes in the pH (0.2 units). In contrast the CZE method developed for both cyclodextrins and their derivatives gave good resolution of the enantiomers and method stability (R.S.D. < 1%, n = 10 on precision). The basis of the interaction mechanism between selector and selectand was shown as a 1:2 relationship of cyclodextrin to analyte by NMR. In addition the polysaccharide, heparin was investigated as a chiral additive and excellent resolution of the oxamniquine was achieved with 3 mM heparin in 50 mM sodium dihydrogenphosphate (pH 3.0) as buffer in CZE, which also gave a stable procedure. This method allowed the detection of each of the enantiomers in the presence of the other down to 0.23% (m/m). The overall composition of the heparin material from different sources can however be slightly variable and this can result in small differences in resolution capability.