Direct separation of the stereoisomers of methoxytetrahydronaphthalene derivatives, new agonist and antagonist ligands for melatonin receptors, by liquid chromatography on cellulose chiral stationary phases

Analytical HPLC methods using derivatized cellulose chiral stationary phase s were developed for the direct separation of the stereoisomers of disubsti tuted tetralin derivatives with two chiral centers, new agonist and antagon ist ligands for melatonin receptors, The separations were made using normal -phase methodology with a mobile phase consisting of n-hexane-alcohol (meth anol, ethanol, l-propanol or a-propanol) in various proportions, and a sili ca-based cellulose tris-3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate (Chiralcel OD-H), or tr is-methylbenzoate (Chiralcel OJ). The effects of concentration of various a liphatic alcohols in the mobile phase were studied. A better separation was achieved on cellulose carbamate phase compared with the cellulose eater ph ase. The effects of structural features of the solutes on the discriminatio n between the stereoisomers were examined. Baseline separation (R-s>1.5) wa s easily obtained in many cases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.