Reliable HPLC separation, vibrational circular dichroism spectra, and absolute configurations of isoborneol enantiomers

Resolution of chiral compounds has played an important role in the pharmaceutical field, involving detailed studies of pharmacokinetics, physiological, toxicological, and metabolic activities of enantiomers. Herein, a reliable method by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with an optical rotation detector was developed to separate isoborneol enantiomers. A cellulose tris(3, 5-dimethylphenylcarbamate)-coated chiral stationary phase showed the best separation performance for isoborneol enantiomers in the normal phase among four polysaccharide chiral packings. The effects of alcoholic modifiers and column temperature were studied in detail. Resolution of the isoborneol racemate displayed a downward trend along with an increase in the content of ethanol and column temperature, indicating that less ethanol in the mobile phase and lower temperature were favorable to this process. Moreover, two isoborneol enantiomers were obtained via a semipreparative chiral HPLC technique under optimum conditions, and further characterized by analytical HPLC, and experimental and calculated vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy, respectively. The solution VCD spectrum of the first-eluted component was consistent with the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculated pattern based on the SSS configuration, indicating that this enantiomer should be (1S, 2S, 4S)-(+)-isoborneol. Briefly, these results have provided reliable information to establish a method for analysis, preparative separation, and absolute configuration of chiral compounds without typical chromophoric groups.