Anna Rocco

Glycyrrhizin (G) and glycyrrhetic acid (GA) were separated by using nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC) in a fused silica capillary packed with RP18 stationary phase (75 microm ID, effective length 33 cm, packed 23 cm) eluting at 300 nL/min in a gradient mode. The mobile phase was a mixture of water-MeOH-MeCN-acetic acid (29:35:35:1, v/v/v/v) that was delivered for one minute and after this was modified by reducing the water content (14:42.5:42.5:1, v/v/v/v). The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations (of retention time and peak area) were satisfactory (lower than 2.9 and 4%, respectively). The linearity of the nano-LC method was assessed in the range 0.62-5.00 microg/mL and 80-200 microg/mL for GA and G, with R2 = 0.996 and 0.995, respectively. The licorice was extracted with a mixture of ethanol-water, diluted with the mobile phase, and injected for the analysis.

One of the current trends of modern analytical chemistry is the miniaturization of the various tools daily used by a large number of researchers. Ultrafast separations, consumption of small amounts of both samples and reagents as well as a high sensitivity and automation are some of the most important goals desired to be achieved. For many years a large number of research laboratories and analytical instrument manufacturing companies have been investing their efforts in this field, which includes miniaturized extraction materials, sample pre-treatment procedures and separation techniques. Among the separation techniques, capillary electromigration methods (which also include CEC), microchip and nano-LC/capillary LC have received special attention. Besides their well-known advantages over other separation tools, the role of these miniaturized techniques in food analysis is still probably in an early stage. In fact, applications in this field carried out by CEC, microchip, nano-LC and capillary LC are only a few when compared with other more established procedures such as conventional GC or HPLC. The scope of this review is to gather and discuss the different applications of such miniaturized techniques in this field. Concerning CE, microchip-CE and CEC works, emphasis has been placed on articles published after January 2007.

Several racemic acidic compounds of pharmaceutical and environmental interest have been separated into their enantiomers by nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC) employing a tert-butylbenzoylated tartardiamide chiral stationary phase (CHI-TBB). CHI-TBB was packed into a fused silica capillary of 100 microm id and retained by two frits made with a heated wire; detection was on-column at a window (about 0.5 cm) prepared by removing the polyimide layer. The normal phase mode was selected for eluting the studied acidic compounds and therefore n-hexane/2-propanol/acetic acid (89/10/1, v/v/v) was used as mobile phase. Working at a flow rate of 220 nL/min a good resolution was obtained for mecoprop, dichlorprop, diclofop, fenoxaprop (herbicides) and for DF 1738Y, DF 1770Y, DF 2008Y (drugs under evaluation). In order to optimize the chiral resolution we modified the polarity of the mobile phase by adding several polar additives such as ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, tert-butyl methyl ether. Better results were obtained for some herbicides on working with 2-propanol/CH2Cl2/n-hexane/acetic acid (8/4/87/1, v/v/v/v). The influence of the capillary temperature on chiral resolution was studied for two herbicides with different chemical structures, namely mecoprop and haloxyfop in the temperature range between 10 and 40 degrees C and with n-hexane/2-propanol/1% acetic acid (89/10/1, v/v/v) as the mobile phase. Linear correlation of ln k vs 1/T and In alpha vs 1/ T was observed; deltaH degrees values were negative, demonstrating that retention of analytes was an exothermic process. A decrease in resolution was observed with rising temperature, showing that enantioresolution was mainly influenced by selectivity factors.

Hesperetin (HT) is a flavanone abundantly found in citrus fruits. It has been reported that HT possesses significant antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. This explains the necessity of developing new methods more powerful and sensitive for analyzing HT in biological fluids. Taking into account the chiral nature of HT, the study of the stereospecific kinetics of in vitro and in vivo metabolism and tissue distribution could be a useful tool for further understanding stereoselective biotransformations in human body. A simple nano-liquid chromatographic method for the determination of the enantiomeric composition of hesperetin in human urine was developed. Chiral separation was achieved using a 100 microm I.D. capillary, packed with phenyl-carbamate-propyl-beta-cyclodextrin stationary phase, employing a mobile phase composed by a mixture of triethylammonium acetate buffer (1%, v/v, pH 4.5) and water/methanol (30:70, v/v) at room temperature. The detection was done by using on-column UV detector at 205 nm. Calibration curves were linear in the studied concentration range from 0.25 to 25 microg/mL (r(2)>0.999). Precision assay was <4.5% and was within 3% at the limit of quantification (0.5 microg/mL). The recovery of 7-ethoxycoumarin (IS), R- and S-hesperetin was greater than 82.48%, utilizing a liquid-liquid extraction procedure. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of hesperetin enantiomers in urine samples obtained from a male volunteer, after the ingestion of 1L of a commercial blood orange juice.

In the last decade, miniaturized separation techniques have become greatly popular in pharmaceutical analysis. Miniaturized separation methods are increasingly utilized in all processes of drug discovery as well as quality control of pharmaceutical preparation. The great advantages presented by the analytical miniaturized techniques, including high separation efficiency and resolution, rapid analysis and minimal consumption of reagents and samples, make them an attractive alternative to the conventional chromatographic methods for drug analysis. The purpose of this review is to give a general overview of the applicability of capillary electrophoresis (CE), capillary electrochromatography (CEC) and micro/capillary/nano-liquid chromatography (micro-LC/CLC/nano-LC) for the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), drug impurity testing, chiral drug separation, determination of drugs and metabolites in biological fluids. The results concerning the use of CEC, micro-LC, CLC, and nano-LC in the period 2009-2013, while for CE, those from 2012 up to the review draft are here summarized and some specific examples are discussed.

Nano-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (nano-LC-MS) was evaluated for the separation of basic compounds of pharmaceutical interest. The separation of selected beta-blockers, namely nadolol, oxprenolol, alprenolol and propranolol in the presence of terbutaline was performed using two 75 microm I.D. capillaries packed with two different RP18 stationary phases (SP). The best results concerning resolution and efficiency were achieved using the SP where free silanol groups were not present. As expected, this latter SP proved to be very efficient and symmetry factors were observed mainly in the case of the more retained analytes. Baseline resolution of all studied basic compounds was achieved with the Cogent bidentate C18 silica phase (CBC18) eluting analytes at 800 nL/min with a mobile phase containing 500 mM ammonium acetate pH 4.5-water-methanol (1:8:91, v/v/v). The separated basic compounds were revealed using on-column UV detector at 205 nm and electrospray-ion-trap mass spectrometer (ESI-MS). The packed capillary was connected to the MS through a commercial sheath liquid interface or a sheathless nano-spray interface and in both cases the sensitivity was studied and the results compared. Limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.1 ng/mL was measured for nadolol using the sheathless nano-spray interface and the capillary column packed with the CBC18 stationary phase.

Hepta-Tyr antibiotic modified silica stationary phase was used for the chiral resolution of D,L-loxiglumide, a new drug under investigation proposed for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. The chiral stationary phase was packed into fused silica capillaries of 75 microm i.d. for a length of only 7 cm and used for both capillary electrochromatography (CEC) and nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC) running the experiments with the same instrumentation; in order to increase the electroosmotic flow (EOF) the antibiotic stationary phase was mixed with amino-silica particles (3:1, w/w) generating a relatively high reversed EOF. The enantiomeric resolution of loxiglumide by CEC was strongly influenced by several experimental parameters such as applied electric field, mobile phase composition, capillary temperature, etc. Optimum experimental conditions were found applying 15 kV at 20 degrees C and eluting with acetonitrile-sodium phosphate buffer at pH 6 (1:1, v/v). The same capillary was tested for nano-LC experiments. Good chiral separation of loxiglumide was achieved selecting the appropriate mobile phase considering the type and concentration of organic modifier. The nano-LC optimised method was therefore validated and applied to the analysis of a pharmaceutical formulation declared to contain only D-loxiglumide.

Capillary columns (50, 75 and 100 μm I.D.) were packed with silica C₁₈ sub-2 μm particles for 50mm and were employed in nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC) for fast chromatographic separations. Mixtures of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and steroids were used as models. Separations no longer than 3 min were obtained with the three capillary columns employing a mobile phase of 35/65 (v/v) and 45/55 (v/v) ACN/H(2)O in 0.1% formic acid (HFo) for steroids and NSAIDs, respectively. Among the capillary columns used, best results, in terms of retention factor and selectivity, were achieved with the 50 μm I.D. column. The same sample mixtures were analyzed by micro-liquid chromatography (μ-LC), employing a commercial microbore column Hypersil GOLD™ (50 mm × 1.0 mm I.D.) packed with C₁₈ 1.9 μm particles, and working at the same linear velocity. The results were compared with those obtained with the 50 μm I.D. column in terms of analysis time, efficiency and selectivity. An evaluation of Van Deemter curves was also done for both columns. Finally both nano-LC and μ-LC methods, developed for the separation of the steroid mixture, were validated and applied to the determination of dexamethasone in commercial tablets. Relative standard deviation (RSD%), intra and inter days, of retention time were in the 0.1-1.0% and 2.3-3.5% ranges respectively, for nano-LC, while for μ-LC they were in the 0.6-1.4% and 0.9-1.6% ranges. Peak areas RSD% were also satisfactory (not higher than 6.3% for inter days values). LOD were between 0.010 and 0.040 μg/mL for nano-LC and between 0.1 and 0.5 μg/mL for μ-LC. To assess the linearity of both methods, six concentration levels were injected for three times in two different concentration ranges. Correlation coefficients (r²) of 0.998 and 0.997 were obtained for μ-LC and nano-LC respectively. Good recovery data were also found from analysis of real samples, utilizing 11α-hydroxyprogesterone as internal standard.

In this work, the simultaneous enantioseparation of the second-generation antidepressant drug mirtazapine and its main metabolites 8-hydroxymirtazapine and N-desmethylmirtazapine by chiral CEC is reported. The separation of all enantiomers under study was achieved employing a capillary column packed with a vancomycin-modified diol stationary phase. With the aim to optimize the separation of the three pairs of enantiomers in the same run, different experimental parameters were studied including the mobile phase composition (buffer concentration and pH, organic modifier type and ratio, and water content), stationary phase composition, and capillary temperature. A capillary column packed with vancomycin mixed with silica particles in the ratio (3:1) and a mobile phase composed of 100 mM ammonium acetate buffer (pH 6)/H(2)O/MeOH/ACN (5:15:30:50, by vol.) allowed the complete enantioresolution of each pair of enantiomers but not the simultaneous separation of all the studied compounds. For this purpose, a packing bed composed of vancomycin-CSP only was tested and the baseline resolution of the three couples of enantiomers was achieved in a single run in less than 30 min, setting the applied voltage and temperature at 25 kV and 20 degrees C, respectively. In order to show the potential applicability of the developed CEC method to biomedical analysis, a study concerning precision, sensitivity, and linearity was performed. The method was then applied to the separation of the enantiomers in a human urine sample spiked with the studied compounds after suitable SPE procedure with strong cation-exchange (SCX) cartridges.

ABSTRACT The S-(-)-enantiomer of ofloxacin, a chiral fluoroquinolone antibiotic, exhibits an antibacterial activity 8-128 times higher than that of the R-(+)-isomer. A new stereospecific nano-LC method for the enantioseparation of the ofloxacin racemic mixture was developed using an achiral reversed phase column (Pinnacle II Phenyl 3 μm, 15 cm x 100 μm ID) and heptakis-(2,3-diacetyl-6-sulfo)-β-cyclodextrin (HDAS-β-CD) as a mobile phase chiral additive. Best enantioresolution was achieved using a mobile phase containing acetonitrile, 50 mM sodium acetate buffer pH 3 (30:70, v/v) and 5 mM of HDAS-β-CD. The flow rate thorough the capillary column was estimated in 620 nL/min and the wavelength for the UV detection was set at 290 nm. Good separation of the enantiomers was obtained is less than 10 min with a resolution and selectivity factor of 1.66 and 1.88, respectively. The effect of several experimental parameters on the chiral separation was also evaluated and the method was successfully validated in terms of linearity, accuracy and precision, showing the enantiorecognition capability of the employed sulfated β-CD toward the ofloxacin chiral drug.

A novel sub-2μm chiral stationary phase (CSP) was prepared immobilizing vancomycin onto 1.8μm diol hydride-based silica particles. The CSP was packed into fused silica capillaries of 75μm i.d. with a length of 11cm and evaluated by means of nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC) using model compounds of both pharmaceutical and environmental interest (some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, β-blockers and herbicides). The study of the effect of the linear velocity of the mobile phase on chromatographic efficiency showed good enantioresolutions up to a value of 5.11 at the optimal linear velocity with efficiencies in terms of number of plates per meter in the range 51,650-68,330. The results were compared with the ones obtained employing 5μm vancomycin modified diol-silica particles packed in capillaries of the same i.d. For the acidic analytes the sub-2μm CSP showed better performances, the baseline chiral separation of several studied compounds occurred in an analysis time of less...