PREPARATIVE ENANTIOMER SEPARATION OF ENFLURANE AND ISOFLURANE BY INCLUSION GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY

The dilution of cyclodextrin derivatives in polysiloxanes, previously applied in analytical gas chromatographic enantiomer separation, prove d useful also for packed columns. The preparative enantiomer separatio n of the inhalation anaesthetics enflurane and isoflurane in high chem ical purity (greater than or equal to 99.5%) and enantiomeric purity ( greater than or equal to 99.9 and 99.4%, respectively) was achieved by preparative gas chromatography using a 4 m x 7 mm I.D. column packed with octakis 2,6-di-O-n-pentyl-3-O-butanoyl)-gamma-cyclodextrin dissol ved in SE-54 (10%, w/w) and coated on Chromosorb PAW DMCS (20.3%, w/w) . This approach represents the first preparative racemate resolution o f both anaesthetics by chromatography.