CHIRAL RESOLUTION OF SOME ANTIMALARIAL AGENTS BY SUBCRITICAL AND SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY ON AN (S)-NAPHTHYLUREA STATIONARY-PHASE

The behavior of mefloquine, halofantrine, enpiroline, quinine, quinidine, chloroquine and primaquine is studied by subcritical fluid chromatography on a (S)-naphthylurea column (250 nun x 4.6 mm ID) with a subcritical mobile phase composed of carbon dioxide, methanol and triethylamine (flow rate of 3 ml/min). Except for primaquine and chloroquine, each enantiomer was separated at a temperature between 40 and 60-degrees-C, and at a pressure below 15 MPa. A 98/2, v/v CO2/methanol 0.1% triethylamine mixture allowed the separation of halofantrine enantiomers while the enantiomers of the more polar metabolite (N-desbutylhalofantrine) were separated with a 80-20 v/v mixture as used for mefloquine, enpiroline, quinine and quinidine. The influence of temperature, pressure and of the nature of the mobile phase is discussed.