Theoretical aspects of chiral separation in capillary electrophoresis. III. Application to beta-blockers.

Enantiomers of the beta-blockers propranolol, atenolol, metoprolol, and oxprenolol have been separated by the addition of methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MeBCD) to the operating buffer. There is an optimum concentration of MeBCD for separation for each of the beta-blockers, the magnitude of which could be ranked by the use of a mathematical model and log P data--an indication of the hydrophobicity of the molecule.