Enantioresolutions by Capillary Electrophoresis Using Glycopeptide Antibiotics

A wide number of compounds belonging to the pharmaceutical, biochemical, environmental, and agrochemical fields, due to the presence in their chemical structure of one or more stereogenic center, exhibit two or more optical isomers (at least two enantiomers). Very often, the two enantiomers of a certain compound can exhibit very different biological and/or pharmacological properties, e.g., (−)-epinephrine is a sympathomimetic drug currently used for cardiac stimulation and is 10 times more potent than its enantiomer (1 ). Consequently, the control (qualitative and quantitative) of chiral compounds is a very important topic in the different fields, because health and pollution are, directly or indirectly, strongly involved. Therefore, analytical methods possessing high resolution capability, high efficiency, and low costs are requested for the separation and quantification of enantiomers present in, e.g., biological fluids, drugs, product of synthetic reactions, etc.