Ultra-high concentration of amylose for chiral separations in capillary electrophoresis

In the present study, a capillary electrophoresis method using high concentration of amylose solutions as separation medium has been developed with the aid of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as co-solvent. The best buffer conditions for primaquine, trihexyphenidyl (THP), sulconazole and cetirizine enantiomers were optimized as 20 mM sodium phosphate buffer with DMSO/water (40/60, v/v) as solvent at a pH of 3.0, containing 10% (w/v) amylose. Partial-filling and semi-permanent coating techniques were used considering the influences of DMSO on UV detection. High chiral resolution for THP enantiomers was obtained showing good chiral separation capacity of this method. The method showed good linearity (R2 > 0.998) over the concentration range of 0.50 and 2.00 mg L−1 for all the enantiomers. The detection limits for the tested enantiomers were in the range from 0.05 to 0.12 mg L−1. The linear calibration models were proven to be adequate for the experimental data by lack-of-fit test. The intra-assay precision, inter-day precision and accuracy were all evaluated to be acceptable. Separation and determination of THP enantiomers in rabbit blood were also carried out.