Chiral separation of tamsulosin isomers by HPLC using cellulose tris (3,5-dimethhylphenylcarbamate) as a chiral stationary phase.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the chiral separation of an antagonist of alpha1A adrenoceptors, tamsulosin and its S-isomer. Baseline separation of the isomers was achieved within 35 min on a CHIRALCEL OD-RH column with a binary solvent mixture of 50 mmol l(-1) KPF6-acetonitrile (v/v (70:30), pH 5.0) as the optimized mobile phase. The detection limits and quantification limits of both R-isomer and S-isomer were 0.11 and 0.44 ng, respectively. The R.S.D. values of peak-area for the two isomer were 0.42% (of peak-height: 0.77%) for R-isomer and 0.64% (of peak-height:0.92%) for S-isomer (n = 5).