Enantioseparation of Chiral Compounds From Traditional Chinese Medicines on a Chiral Packed Capillary Column With UV Detection.

A chiral packed capillary column (PCC) was prepared by a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as the frit and cellulose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate)-coated silica particles (CDMPC@SiO2) as the chiral stationary phase. This column coupled with UV detection was employed for the enantioseparation of chiral compounds derived from traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Baseline enantioseparation was achieved for schisandrin B and tetrahydropalmatine, whereas partial separation was observed for anisodamine and corynoxeine. The reproducibility and stability of the column were confirmed, with relative standard deviation (RSD) values for retention time and resolution ranging from 2.5% to 3.2% (intra-day), 2.7% to 3.5% (inter-day), and 4.1% to 4.5% (inter-column). Then, the column was successfully applied to the direct enantioseparation and quantitative determination of tetrahydropalmatine in the extract of Yanhusuo (Corydalis Rhizoma). These results demonstrate that the proposed chiral CDMPC@SiO2 PCC is not only reproducible and stable but also can be effectively applied to the enantioseparation and content determination of chiral compounds in complex TCMs. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were conducted to investigate intermolecular interactions between CDMPC and chiral analytes, which provides a deeper understanding of the enantioseparation mechanism.