Chiral analysis by capillary electrophoresis using antibiotics as chiral selector

The separation of chiral compounds by capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a very interesting field of research in different areas such as pharmaceutical, environmental, agricultural analysis etc. The separation of two enantiomers can be achieved in CE using a chiral environment interacting with the two analytes on forming diastereoisomers with different stability constants and thus different mobilities. A wide number of chiral selectors have been employed in CE and among them glycopeptide antibiotics exhibited excellent enantioselective properties towards a wide number of racemic compounds. Vancomycin, ristocetin A, rifamycins, teicoplanin, kanamycin, streptomycin, fradiomycin, and two vancomycin analogues, added to the background electrolyte (BGE), are the antibiotics studied by CE running the separation in untreated and/or coated fused-silica capillary. Due to adsorption and absorption phenomena, some drawbacks can be expected when using bare fused-silica capillary, e.g., changes of electroosmotic flow (EOF), broaden peaks, reduced efficiency and low sensitivity. Coated capillary and counter current mode can be the solution to overcome the above mentioned problems. This review surveys the separation of enantiomers by CE when macrocyclic antibiotics are used as chiral selector. The enantioselectivity can be easily controlled modifying several parameters such as antibiotic type and concentration, pH, ionic strength and concentration of the background electrolyte, organic modifier etc. The paper also presents a list of the latest chiral separations achieved by CE where antibiotics were used as chiral selector.