Validated Chiral LC Method for the Enantiomeric Separation of Palonosetron Hydrochloride

Abstract

A new and accurate chiral liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the separation of palonosetron hydrochloride (PALO) and its (R,R)-enantiomer in bulk drug samples with an elution time of about 20 min. The chromatographic separation was carried out by normal phase chromatography using an immobilized cellulose based chiral stationary phase (Chiralpak-IC) with a mobile phase composed of n-hexane:ethanol:1,4 dioxane:trifluoroacetic acid:diethylamine (65:30:5:0.3:0.3, v/v) pumped at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min⁻¹. The resolution (R _s ) between the enantiomers was found to be greater than 3.0 and interestingly the (R,R)-enantiomer was eluted prior to the (S,S)-enantiomer (PALO) in the developed method. Mobile phase additives, trifluoroacetic acid and diethylamine played a key role in achieving chromatographic resolution between the enantiomers and also in enhancing chromatographic efficiency. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of the (R,R)-enantiomer were found to be 0.03 and 0.1 μg respectively for 10 μL injection volume. The developed method shows excellent linearity (r ² > 0.999) over a range of LOQ to 0.3% for the (R,R)-enantiomer. The percentage recovery of the (R,R)-enantiomer in bulk drug samples ranged from 97.2 to 102.3 revealing good sensitivity of the developed method. Robustness studies were also carried out on the developed method.