Enantioseparation of basic drugs by capillary electrochromatography using a stationary phase of transfersomes

Transfersomes, a special kind of phospholipid vesicles with higher deformability and flexibility, were applied as coating material to prepare a transfersomes-coated capillary column. A capillary electrochromatography enantioseparation system based on the new transfersomes-coated column with carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin added to the running buffer as a chiral selector was established for the first time. Compared with a bare column, three basic drugs achieved baseline separation with better resolution (3.17 for Propranolol, 2.38 for Metoprolol, 2.34 for Esmolol) in this transfersomes-electrochromatography system. Several important parameters including concentration of chiral selector, buffer pH and applied voltage were systematically investigated to provide the optimal separation condition. This study constructed a flexible and efficient enantioseparation electrochromatography system with a small amount of transfersomes, and showed that transfersomes as the stationary phase could efficiently improve chiral separation effect.