Determination of enantiomeric impurity in besifloxacin hydrochloride by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization

Besifloxacin hydrochloride is a novel chiral broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone developed for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. R-besifloxacin hydrochloride is used in clinics as a consequence of its higher antibacterial activity. To establish an enantiomeric impurity determination method, some chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were screened. Besifloxacin enantiomers can be separated to a certain extent on Chiral CD-Ph (Shiseido Co., Ltd., Japan), Chiral AGP, and Crownpak CR (+) (Daicel Chemical IND., Ltd., Japan). However, the selectivity and sensitivity were both unsatisfactory on these three CSPs. Therefore, Chiral AGP, Chiral CD-Ph, and Crownpak CR (+) were not used in the enantiomeric impurity determination of besifloxacin hydrochloride. The separation of enantiomers of besifloxacin was further performed using a precolumn derivatization chiral high-performance liquid chromatography method. 2,3,4,6-Tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl isothiocyanate was used as the derivatization reagent. Besifloxacin enantiomer derivates were well separated on a C18 column (250 x 4.6?mm, 5 mu m) with a mobile phase that consisted of methanol-KH2PO4 buffer solution (20?mM; pH?3.0) (50:50, v/v). Selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, stability, and robustness of this method were all satisfied with the method validation requirement. The method was suitable for the quality control of enantiomeric impurity in besifloxacin hydrochloride. Chirality 24:526531, 2012. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.