APPLICATION OF CHIRALCEL OJ IN SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY FORTHE RESOLUTION OF DIFFERENT GROUPS OF FREQUENTLY USED DRUG RACEMATES

Supercritical fluid chromatography was applied to evaluate the direct chiral discriminative properties of Chiralcel OJ, a tris(4-methylbenzo ate)cellulose column towards frequently administered drugs. Two groups of acidic drugs, profen and barbiturate derivatives, and a few basic drugs of the benzodiazepine type were analysed. The effect on enantios electivity of carbon dioxide when using methanol or acetonitrile as pr imary modifier was studied. Acetonitrile proved to be a good alternati ve for methanol, especially for the profen compounds that were not wel l resolved using methanol. The results were compared to normal phase c hromatographic applications on the same column. SFC was not necessaril y superior to high-performance liquid chromatography. (C) 1997 Wiley-L iss, Inc.