Direct separation of the stereoisomers of methoxytetrahydronaphthalene derivatives, new agonist and antagonist ligands for melatonin receptors, by liquid chromatography on cellulose chiral stationary phases.

Analytical HPLC methods using derivatized cellulose chiral stationary phases were developed for the direct separation of the stereoisomers of disubstituted tetralin derivatives with two chiral centers, new agonist and antagonist ligands for melatonin receptors. The separations were made using normal-phase methodology with a mobile phase consisting of n-hexane-alcohol (methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol or 2-propanol) in various proportions, and a silica-based cellulose tris-3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate (Chiralcel OD-H), or tris-methylbenzoate (Chiralcel OJ). The effects of concentration of various aliphatic alcohols in the mobile phase were studied. A better separation was achieved on cellulose carbamate phase compared with the cellulose ester phase. The effects of structural features of the solutes on the discrimination between the stereoisomers were examined. Baseline separation (Rs>1.5) was easily obtained in many cases.