Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 11, 2026

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
Published on: March 11, 2022
Preparative enantioseparation of loxoprofen precursor by recycling countercurrent chromatography with
Hui Zhang1, Xujun Qiu1, Liqiong Lv1
1College of Pharmaceutical Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Recycling countercurrent chromatography was successfully applied to the resolution of 2-(4-bromomethylphenyl)propionic acid, a key synthetic intermediate for synthesis of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug loxoprofen, using hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin as chiral selector. The two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane/n-butyl acetate/0.1 mol/L citrate buffer solution with pH 2.4 (8:2:10, v/v/v) was selected. Influence factors for the enantioseparation were optimized, including type of substituted β-cyclodextrin, concentration of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin, separation temperature, and pH of aqueous phase. Under optimized separation conditions, 50 mg of 2-(4-bromomethylphenyl)propionic acid was enantioseparated using preparative recycling countercurrent chromatography. Technical details for recycling elution mode were discussed. The purities of both the S and R enantiomers were over 99.0% as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The enantiomeric excess of the S and R enantiomers reached 98.0%. The recovery of the enantiomers from eluted fractions was 40.8-65.6%, yielding 16.4 mg of the S enantiomer and 10.2 mg of the R enantiomer. At the same time, we attempted to enantioseparate the anti-inflammatory drug loxoprofen by countercurrent chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography using a chiral mobile phase additive. However, no successful enantioseparation was achieved so far.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality in Nature
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Recycling Endosomes and Transcytosis
The recycling endosome is not a single organelle but an extensively tubulated network of recycling pathways. It functions in storing molecules or transporting them across...
Mitochondrial Precursor Proteins
Most of the mitochondrial...

