SOME MECHANISTIC ASPECTS ON CHIRAL DISCRIMINATION OF ORGANIC-ACIDS BY IMMOBILIZED BOVINE SERUM-ALBUMIN (BSA)

Although chiral anionic compounds, notably a large number of organic acids, have been found to be readily separated into enantiomers on BSA-based columns, the structural requirements for an efficient enantiomer discrimination by the protein is still not very well known. Since it is often observed that very hydrophobic acids, like many of the antiinflammatory "profens," can be resolved with large separation factors for the enantiomers, a systematic study of a series of racemic alpha-substituted alkanoic acids was made. The series of analytes was prepared from alpha-amino acids, RCH(NH2)CO2H (where R = C1-C6), by reaction with N-(chloroformyl)-carbazole. A rapid increase in the capacity ratios of both enantiomers was found with increasing length of R. The effect, however, was larger for the last eluted enantiomer, leading to a substantial increase in the separation factor; this being 7.3 for R = C6 in 20 mM phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) with 30% of acetonitrile. Further, the separation factor also increased with decreasing organic modifier content. Thus when the R = C6-analyte was run at a mobile phase concentration of 20% acetonitrile and a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min, the time difference between the two eluted enantiomers exceeded 20 hr. A reasonable interpretation of our results seems to be that enantioselectivity is promoted by increased hydrophobic interaction. Since the anionic charge of the analyte is also taking part in the retention mechanism, a tight binding of the analyte will result from simultaneous electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction. When the latter is increased, less conformational freedom will be left for the analyte and the steric configuration at the alpha-carbon atom will become more and more important. Steric hindrance by the alpha-substituent in the first eluted enantiomer will counteract the tight binding caused by the combined binding interactions and lead to a smaller increase in the capacity ratio.