GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF ENANTIOMERS AS DIASTEREOMERS FOLLOWING PRECOLUMN DERIVATIZATION AND APPLICATIONS TO PHARMACOKINETIC STUDIES - A REVIEW

The introduction of chiral chromatographic methods has revolutionized the art of separation and quantitation of chiral drugs in biological f luids. A large number of chiral derivatization reagents for various fu nctional groups are available commercially. Therefore, pre-column deri vatization methods have become attractive and simple for the gas chrom atographic assays in biological fluids. The intent of this article is to review the pre-column chiral derivatization reagents employed in ga s chromatographic separations and analyses of enantiomers. A discussio n of numerous procedures necessary to develop a quantitative gas chrom atographic assay method for drug enantiomers is presented. In this reg ard, quantitative gas chromatographic assays based on this approach ha ve been applied to investigate the stereoselective pharmacokinetics of several chiral drugs such as fenfluramine, norfenfluramine, methylphe nidate, etodolac, propranolol, suprofen and methoxyphenamine.