Enantiospecific HPLC and CE Methods for Separation and Determination of S-Darifenacin in Pharmaceutical Formulations

Abstract

Two separation techniques were developed for the determination of S-(−)darifenacin (DAR) in the presence of its R-(+) isomer: The first method is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the second is capillary electrophoresis (CE). Chiral separation for chromatographic HPLC method development was carried out for S-DAR on Daicel CROWNPAK CR (+) (5 μm, 4.0 × 150 mm) column which contains (3,3-diphenyl-1,1-binaphthyl)-crown-6 coated onto a 5.5 μm silica support. The mobile phase system was aqueous acidic 70 % HClO₄ (pH 2.5): methanol in the proportion of 90:10 v/v. This current mobile phase was delivered at flow rate 0.8 mL min⁻¹ using UV detector adjusted at 286 nm. In CE method, the enantiomers were separated using 50 μm inner diameter fused-silica capillary cut to total lengths of 31.2 cm using 50 mM phosphate buffer as background electrolyte adjusted to pH 2.5 by triethanolamine. A wide range of cyclodextrins (CDs) were used such as highly sulfated α, γ CDs, hydroxyl propyl-β-CD and sulfobutyl ether-β-CD as chiral selectors. The effects of chiral additives regarding its concentration and content of organic modifier on the enantioseparation were investigated. Linear concentration ranges were from 2.5 to 50 and 40 to 300 μg mL⁻¹ with detection limits 0.67 and 12.28 μg mL⁻¹ for chromatographic HPLC and electrophoretic CE methods, respectively. The two methods were validated according to ICH guidelines with respect to linearity, accuracy, precision, LOQ, LOD and robustness. The suggested methods are suitable for separation and quantitation of S-DAR in tablets.