Role of the carbohydrate moieties in chiral recognition on teicoplanin-based LC stationary phases

For this study, we used the macrocyclic antibiotic teicoplanin, a molecule consisting of an aglycone peptide "basket" with three attached carbohydrate (sugar) moieties. The sugar units were removed and the aglycone was purified. Two chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were prepared in a similar way, one with the native teicoplanin molecule and the other with the aglycone. Twenty-six compounds were evaluated on the two CSPs with seven RPLC mobile phases and two polar organic mobile phases. The compounds were 13 amino acids or structurally related compounds (including DOPA, folinic acid, etc.) and 13 other compounds (such as carnitine, bromacil, etc.). The chromatographic results are given as the retention, selectivity, and resolution factors along with the peak efficiency and the enantioselective free energy difference corresponding to the separation of the two enantiomers. The polarities of the two CSPs are similar. It is clearly established that the aglycone is responsible for the enantioseparation of amino acids. The difference in enantioselective free energy between the aglycone CSP and the teicoplanin CSP was between 0.3 and 1 kcal/mol for amino acid enantioseparations. This produced resolution factors 2-5 times higher with the aglycone CSP. Four non amino acid compounds were separated only on the teicoplanin CSP. Six and five compounds were better separated on the teicoplanin and aglycone CSPs, respectively. Although the sugar units decrease the resolution of alpha-amino acid enantiomers, they can contribute significantly to the resolution of a number of non amino acid enantiomeric pairs.