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3-Phenyllactic acid is an antimicrobial compound with broad-spectrum activity against various bacteria and fungus. The observed difference in pharmacological activity between optical isomeric 3-phenyllactic acid necessitates a method for enantioseparation. Chiral ligand exchange countercurrent chromatography was investigated for the enantioseparation of 3-phenyllactic acid with a synthesized chiral ligand. A two-phase solvent system was composed of n-butanol/hexane/water (0.4:0.6:1, v/v/v) to which N-n-dodecyl-l-hydroxyproline was added to the organic phase as chiral ligand and cupric acetate was added in the aqueous phase as a transitional metal ion. The influence factors were optimized by enantioselective liquid-liquid extraction. Baseline enantioseparation of racemic 3-phenyllactic acid by analytical high-speed countercurrent chromatography was achieved. The optical purities of enantiomeric 3-phenyllactic acid reached 99.0%, as determined by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography.

The solubility of valsartan in ethyl acetate + (butanone, isopropyl ether) binary solvent mixtures was measured at temperatures T = 278.15–323.15 K and pressure p = 0.1 MPa with a laser monitoring dynamic technique by a synthetic method. The experimental data were regressed by the modified Apelblat equation, the general single model and the hybrid model. The experimental data are well correlated with the above models because the mean deviations (MDs) are less than 3.79%. The mole fraction solubility of valsartan increases with increase in temperature and enrichment in butanone content, while it decreases with increased mole fraction of isopropyl ether at constant temperature. In addition, thermodynamic studies, including Gibbs energy, entropy and enthalpy, were calculated by van’t Hoff analysis. The results showed that the dissolution of valsartan in mixed solvents is endothermic, spontaneous and entropy-driven.

The chromatographic retention mechanism describing relationship between retention factor and concentration of Cu(2+) (l-phenylalanine)2 using chiral ligand mobile phase was investigated and eight mandelic acid derivatives were enantioseparated by chiral ligand exchange chromatography. The relationship between retention factor and concentration of the Cu(2+) (l-phenylalanine)2 complex was proven to be in conformity with chromatographic retention mechanism in which chiral discrimination occurred both in mobile and stationary phase. Different copper(II) salts, chiral ligands, organic modifier, pH of aqueous phase, and conventional temperature on retention behavior were optimized. Eight racemates were successfully enantioseparated on a common reversed-phase column with an optimized mobile phase composed of 6 mmol/L of l-phenylalanine or N,N-dimethyl-l-phenylalanine and 3 mmol/Lof copper(II) acetate or copper(II) sulfate aqueous solution and methanol.

Preparative enantioseparations of α-cyclopentylmandelic acid and α-methylmandelic acid by high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were compared using hydroxypropy-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) and sulfobutyl ether-β-cyclodextrin (SBE-β-CD) as the chiral mobile phase additives. In preparative HPLC the enantioseparation was achieved on the ODS C18 reverse phase column with the mobile phase composed of a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.10 mol L−1 phosphate buffer at pH 2.68 containing 20 mmol L−1 HP-β-CD for α-cyclopentylmandelic acid and 20 mmol L−1 SBE-β-CD for α-methylmandelic acid. The maximum sample size for α-cyclopentylmandelic acid and α-methylmandelic acid was only about 10 mg and 5 mg, respectively. In preparative HSCCC the enantioseparations of these two racemates were performed with the two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-methyl tert.-butyl ether-0.1 molL−1 phosphate buffer solution at pH 2.67 containing 0.1 mol L−1 HP-β-CD for α-cyclopentylmandelic acid (8.5:1.5:10, v/v/v) and 0.1 mol L−1 SBE-β-CD for α-methylmandelic acid (3:7:10, v/v/v). Under the optimum separation conditions, total 250 mg of racemic α-cyclopentylmandelic acid could be completely enantioseparated by HSCCC with HP-β-CD as a chiral mobile phase additive in a single run, yielding 105-110 mg of enantiomers with 95-98% purity and 85-90% recovery. But, no complete enantioseparation of α-methylmandelic acid was achieved by preparative HSCCC with either of the chiral selectors due to their limited enantioselectivity. In this paper preparative enantioseparation by HSCCC and HPLC was compared from various aspects.

This work concentrates on the separation mechanism and application of chiral ligand exchange high-speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) in enantioseparations, and comparison with traditional chiral ligand exchange high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The enantioseparation of ten aromatic α-hydroxyl acids were performed by these two chromatographic methods. Results showed that five of the racemates were successfully enantioseparated by HSCCC while only three of the racemates could be enantioseparated by HPLC using a suitable chiral ligand mobile phase additive. For HSCCC, the two-phase solvent system was composed of butanol-water (1:1, v/v), to which N-n-dodecyl-L-proline was added in the organic phase as chiral ligand and cupric acetate was added in the aqueous phase as a transition metal ion. Various operation parameters in HSCCC were optimized by enantioselective liquid-liquid extraction. Based on the results of the present studies the separation mechanism for HSCCC was proposed. For HPLC, the optimized mobile phase composed of aqueous solution containing 6 mmol L−1 L-phenylalanine and 3 mmol L−1 cupric sulfate and methanol was used for enantioseparation. Among three ligands tested on a conventional reverse stationary phase column, only one was found to be effective. In the present studies HSCCC presented unique advantages due to its high versatility of two-phase solvent systems and it could be used as an alternative method for enantioseparations.

This paper extends the research of the utilization of borate coordination complexes in chiral separation by counter-current chromatography (CCC). Racemic propafenone was successfully enantioseparated by CCC with di-n-butyl l-tartrate combined with boric acid as the chiral selector. The two-phase solvent system was composed of chloroform/ 0.05 mol/L acetate buffer pH 3.4 containing 0.10 mol/L boric acid (1:1, v/v), in which 0.10 mol/L di-n-butyl l-tartrate was added in the organic phase. The influence of factors in the enantioseparation of propafenone were investigated and optimized. A total of 92 mg of racemic propafenone was completely enantioseparated using high-speed CCC in a single run, yielding 40-42 mg of (R)- and (S)-propafenone enantiomers with an HPLC purity over 90-95%. The recovery for propafenone enantiomers from fractions of CCC was in the range of 85-90%.

The equilibrium model in enantioseparation of mandelic acid by chiral ligand exchange countercurrent chromatography was investigated using N-n-dodecyl-l-proline as chiral ligand and cupric ion as central metal. Important parameters, including physical partition coefficient and formation constants of binary and ternary coordination complexes in the two-phase solvent system, were determined. This equilibrium model could give an excellent prediction of distribution ratio and enantioseparation factor of the analyte in the biphasic solvent system, which was further verified by experiments. All the average relative deviations were less than 12%, indicating that the established model could provide a simple computational approach for optimization of enantioseparation conditions in chiral ligand exchange countercurrent chromatography.

The chromatographic retention mechanism describing relationship between retention factor and concentration of Cu(2+) (l-phenylalanine)2 using chiral ligand mobile phase was investigated and eight mandelic acid derivatives were enantioseparated by chiral ligand exchange chromatography. The relationship between retention factor and concentration of the Cu(2+) (l-phenylalanine)2 complex was proven to be in conformity with chromatographic retention mechanism in which chiral discrimination occurred both in mobile and stationary phase. Different copper(II) salts, chiral ligands, organic modifier, pH of aqueous phase, and conventional temperature on retention behavior were optimized. Eight racemates were successfully enantioseparated on a common reversed-phase column with an optimized mobile phase composed of 6 mmol/L of l-phenylalanine or N,N-dimethyl-l-phenylalanine and 3 mmol/Lof copper(II) acetate or copper(II) sulfate aqueous solution and methanol.

A method was established for the enantioseparation of atrolactic acids using high performance liquid chromatography with sulfobutyl ether-beta-cyclodextrin (SBE-beta-CD) as the chiral mobile phase additive, and a C18 reversed-phase column. The influences of the different types of cyclodextrin derivatives, the concentration of chiral mobile phase additive, pH value of the mobile phase, the flow rate and column temperature on the peak resolution were investigated. The separation mechanism for atrolactic acids by high performance liquid chromatography using chiral mobile phase additive, as well as the formation of inclusion complex between SBE-beta-CD and atrolactic acid was studied. In addition, the formation constant was calculated. The enantioseparation was carried out on a reversed-phase column YMC-Pack ODS-A C18 (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) with chiral mobile phase consisted of 0.1 mol/L phosphate buffer at pH 2.68 containing 25 mmol/L SBE-beta-CD-acetonitrile (90:10, v/v). The detection wavelength was 220 nm. The flow rate was 0.6 mL/min and the column temperature was 30 degrees C. The retention times of atrolactic acids were 26.65 and 28.28 min, and the peak resolution of 1.68 was achieved. The above established method proves to be a simple and economical way for analytical enantioseparation of atrolactic acid with high peak resolution.

The enantioseparation of ten mandelic acid derivatives was performed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) or sulfobutyl ether-β-cyclodextrin (SBE-β-CD) as chiral mobile phase additives, in which inclusion complex formations between cyclodextrins and enantiomers were evaluated. The effects of various factors such as the composition of mobile phase, concentration of cyclodextrins and column temperature on retention and enantioselectivity were studied. The peak resolutions and retention time of the enantiomers were strongly affected by the pH, the organic modifier and the type of β-cyclodextrin in the mobile phase, while the concentration of buffer solution and temperature had a relatively low effect on resolutions. Enantioseparations were successfully achieved on a Shimpack CLC-ODS column (150 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm). The mobile phase was a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.10 mol L −1 of phosphate buffer at pH 2.68 containing 20 mmol L −1 of HP-β-CD or SBE-β-CD. Semi-preparative enantioseparation of about 10 mg of α-cyclohexylmandelic acid and α-cyclopentylmandelic acid were established individually. Cyclodextrin-enantiomer complex stoichiometries as well as binding constants were investigated. Results showed that stoichiometries for all the inclusion complex of cyclodextrin-enantiomers were 1:1.