Direct enantiomeric resolution of some 2‐arylpropionic acids using (−)‐brucine‐impregnated thin‐layer chromatography

Abstract

Direct enantioseparation of (±)-ibuprofen and (±)-flurbiprofen was achieved by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography on silica gel plates impregnated with optically pure (−)-brucine as chiral selector. The solvent systems that were successful in resolving both the compounds were acetonitrile–methanol (16:3 v/v) for the first dimension and acetonitrile–methanol–water (16:3:0.4, v/v) for the second dimension. Iodine vapour was used for detection; the detection limit for both (±)-ibuprofen and (±)-flurbiprofen was 0.1 µg. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.