Determination of the enantiomeric purity of albuterol on sorbents modified by macrocyclic antibiotics

Abstract

The separation of albuterol enantiomers on sorbents with macrocyclic glycopeptide antibiotics immobilized on the silica surface was investigated. Commercial columns—Nautilus-E (BioKhimMak, Russia) with eremomycin as a chiral selector and ChirobioticTAG (Astec, United States) with teicoplanin aglycone as a chiral selector—were used for enantioseparation. Levalbuterol is the (R)-enantiomer of albuterol. We managed to separate albuterol enantiomers on both columns in a polar organic mode, but selectivity was higher on the ChirobioticTAG column (R_s = 1.7). The maximum resolution of enantiomer peaks (1.7) was observed in methanol–acetonitrile–triethylamine–acetic acid (90: 10: 0.05: 0.05) as the mobile phase. The detection limit of the compound calculated by a signal–background ratio of 3: 1 was 0.00002 mg/mL, which corresponds to 0.1% of (S)-enantiomer with respect to the total amount. The results made it possible to determine the enantiomeric purity of the active pharmaceutical substances of levalbuterol.