Comparative optical separation of racemic ibuprofen by using chiral stationary phase

Abstract

Ibuprofen is widely used as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and produced as racemic mixture. Its pharmacological activity resides only in S-(+)-enantiomer, and R-(-)-enantiomer is not only inactive but also has many side effects. Thus it is necessary to separate R-enantiomer, from racemic ibuprofen. We studied optical separation of racemic Ibuprofen with chiral high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Out of three different chiral stationary phases, which were selected on the basis of structure and availability, two were found to be effective. There was optimum eluent composition for each stationary phase for good resolution in optical separation. Resolution decreased with increase of eluent flow rate, but effect of injection volume on resolution was insignificant at high eluent flow rate.