Separation of vinca alkaloid enantiomers by capillary electrophoresis applying cyclodextrin derivatives and characterization of cyclodextrin complexes by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

In this work, the enantiomeric separation of three vinca alkaloid enantiomers (vincamine, vinpocetine and vincadifformine) has been investigated in an aqueous capillary electrophoresis (CE) system using cyclodextrins (CDs). The investigated CDs were the native alpha-, beta-, and gamma-CDs and their hydroxypropylated, randomly methylated, carboxymethylated and sulfobutylated derivatives. The first part of this study consisted of the determination of the apparent averaged complex stability constants with the selected CDs. Several parameters, such as the nature and the concentration of the CD, were studied and were found to have a significant effect on the enantiomeric resolution for all studied compounds. All three vinca alkaloids were successfully enantioseparated with CDs where different migration orders were observed in case of several CDs depending on the cavity size or substituent of the host. Chiral separation and determination of the stability constants were also performed with NMR spectroscopy which confirmed the CE results. Averaged stoichiometries of the complexes were determined using the Job plot method resulting in a 1:1 complex irrespective of the alkaloid enantiomers or cyclodextrin derivative. The structures of the inclusion complexes were elucidated using 2D ROESY NMR spectroscopy. On the basis of NMR results reversal of enantiomer migration order was clarified in various cases. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.