Resolving Racemic Mixtures Using Parallel Combinatorial Libraries

As human enzymes and cell surface receptors possess handedness, the enantiomers of a racemic pair of compounds may be absorbed, activated, and degraded in different manners. In some instances, two enantiomers of a racemic drug may have different or even opposite pharmacological activities. In order to acknowledge these differing effects, the biological activity of each enantiomer often needs to be studied separately. This and other factors within the pharmaceutical industry have contributed significantly to the need for enantiomerically pure compounds (1 ). Consequently, the need to analyze and separate racemic compounds efficiently is of significant importance in pharmaceutical research. Among the asymmetric technologies developed, chromatographic methods are widely used.