Diastereoisomeric glucuronides of oxazepam. Isolation and stereoselective enzymic hydrolysis.

Oxazepam glucuronide isolated from swine urine by previously published methods was separated into its diastereoisomers by ion-exchange chromatography on a preparative scale. Quantitative high-performance liquid chromatography was used to monitor the separation. The two isomers were obtained in analytically pure form and then characterized by elemental analysis, oxazepam content, mass spectrometry, ultraviolet spectroscopy, optical rotation and optical rotatory dispersion-circular dichroism. The latter permitted the assignment of the dextrorotatory and the levorotatory isomers to the (S)- and (R)- configurations, respectively. Rates of enzymic hydrolysis depend on the configuration of the substrate as well as on the enzyme preparation used. Rate of cleavage was highest with the (S)-(+)-glucuronide and beta-glucuronidase from Escherichia coli. This enzyme possesses the highest degree of stereoselectivity; it hydrolyzes the (S)-(+)-isomer more than 400 times faster than the (R)-(-)-form. Bovine liver glucuronidase is less stereoselective, whereas glucuronidase preparations of molluscan origin exhibit little stereoselectivity. The ready hydrolysis of one of the glucuronides by an enzyme from an intestinal microorganism may play a role in the enterohepatic circulation of oxazepam.