Liquid chromatographic isolation of vincristine and vinblastine

A fundamentally new method is described for the separation of the dimeric indole alkaloids vincristine and vinblastine from monomeric indole alkaloid impurities. This method uses an RP-18 high-performance liquid chromatography column with a methanol-water mobile phase containing an inorganic acid and an unusually low concentration of inorganic buffer. By keeping the buffer concentration low, the elution of all indole alkaloids is retarded, but the dimeric ones are retarded more than the monomeric ones. A theoretical model developed to explain this behavior postulates that the anions of the buffer solubilize the protonated indole alkaloids by pairing with them. Lowering the buffer concentration reduces the availability of pairing ions and thus decreases the mobile phase affinity of protonated alkaloids, particularly those having a 2+ charge. A similar approach may be applicable in other situations where ionogenic organic compounds having a particular valence must be separated from related compounds having different valences, or from non-ionogenic compounds.