Retention characteristics of some antibiotic and anti-retroviral compounds in hydrophilic interaction chromatography using isocratic elution, and gradient elution with repeatable partial equilibration.

The separation of some zwitterionic, basic and neutral antibiotic and antiretroviral compounds was studied using hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) on bare silica, bonded amide and urea superficially porous phases. The differences in the selectivity and retentivity of these stationary phases were evaluated for compounds with widely different physicochemical properties (logD -3.43 to 2.41 at wwpH 3.0). The mobile phase was acetonitrile-ammonium formate buffered at low wwpH. Compounds containing quinolone and serine groups showed poor peak shapes on all columns, attributed to metal-oxide interactions with system metals. Peak shapes were improved by addition of citrate buffers. Gradient elution, particularly with regard to column equilibration, was also studied due to the large differences in retention factors observed under isocratic conditions. Full equilibration in HILIC was slow for both ionogenic and neutral solutes, requiring as much as ∼40 column volumes. However, highly repeatable partial equilibration, suitable for gradient elution, was achieved in only a few minutes. Pronounced selectivity differences in the separations were shown dependent on the partial equilibration time.

Application of machine learning in prediction of hydrotrope-enhanced solubilisation of indomethacin.

Systematic in-vitro studies have been conducted to determine the ability of a range of 10 potential hydrotropes to improve the apparent aqueous solubility of the poorly water soluble drug, indomethacin. Solubilisation of the drug in the presence of the hydrotropes was determined experimentally using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV) detection. These experimental data, together with various known and computed physicochemical properties of the hydrotropes were thereafter used in silico to train an artificial neural network (ANN) to allow for predictions of indomethacin solubilisation. The trained ANN was found to give highly accurate predictions of indomethacin solubilisation in the presence of hydrotropes and was thus shown to provide a valuable means by which hydrotrope efficacy could be screened computationally. Interrogation of the network connection weights afforded a quantitative assessment of the relative importance of the various hydrotrope physicochemical properties in determining the extent of the enhancement in indomethacin solubilisation. It is concluded that in-silico screening of drug/hydrotrope systems using artificial neural networks offers significant potential to reduce the need for extensive laboratory testing of these systems, and could thus provide an economy in terms of reduced costs and time in drug formulation development.

Development and application of sub-2-µm particle CO2 -based chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry for comprehensive analysis of lipids in cottonseed extracts.

RATIONALE: Refined cottonseed oil has widespread applications in the food and chemical industries. Although the major lipids comprising cottonseed oil (triacylglycerols) are well known, there are many diverse lipid species in cotton seeds that occur at much lower levels and have important nutritional or anti-nutritional properties. METHODS: The lipid technical samples were prepared in chloroform. The biological samples were extracted using a mixture of isopropanol/chloroform/H2 O (2:1:0.45). The data were collected using high and low collision energy with simultaneous data collection on a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer which allowed the characterization of lipids by precursor and product ion alignment. The supercritical fluid chromatography methodology is flexible and can be altered to provide greater retention and separation. The comprehensive method was used to screen seed lipid extracts from several cotton genotypes using multivariate statistical analysis. RESULTS: Method variables influencing the peak integrity and chromatographic separation for a mixture of lipids with different degrees of polarity were explored. The experiments were designed to understand the chromatographic behavior of lipids in a controlled setting using a variety of lipid extracts. Influences of acyl chain length and numbers of double bonds were investigated using single moiety standards. CONCLUSIONS: The methodology parameters were examined using single moiety lipid standards and standard mixtures. The method conditions were applied to biological lipid extracts, and adjustments were investigated to manipulate the chromatography. Insights from these method variable manipulations will help to frame the development of targeted lipid profiling and screening protocols. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analysis of polar urinary metabolites for metabolic phenotyping using supercritical fluid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is frequently used for the analysis and separation of non-polar metabolites, but remains relatively underutilised for the study of polar molecules, even those which pose difficulties with established reversed-phase (RP) or hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic (HILIC) methodologies. Here, we present a fast SFC-MS method for the analysis of medium and high-polarity (-7≤cLogP≤2) compounds, designed for implementation in a high-throughput metabonomics setting. Sixty polar analytes were first screened to identify those most suitable for inclusion in chromatographic test mixtures; then, a multi-dimensional method development study was conducted to determine the optimal choice of stationary phase, modifier additive and temperature for the separation of such analytes using SFC. The test mixtures were separated on a total of twelve different column chemistries at three different temperatures, using CO2-methanol-based mobile phases containing a variety of polar additives. Chromatographic performance was evaluated with a particular emphasis on peak capacity, overall resolution, peak distribution and repeatability. The results suggest that a new generation of stationary phases, specifically designed for improved robustness in mixed CO2-methanol mobile phases, can improve peak shape, peak capacity and resolution for all classes of polar analytes. A significant enhancement in chromatographic performance was observed for these urinary metabolites on the majority of the stationary phases when polar additives such as ammonium salts (formate, acetate and hydroxide) were included in the organic modifier, and the use of water or alkylamine additives was found to be beneficial for specific subsets of polar analytes. The utility of these findings was confirmed by the separation of a mixture of polar metabolites in human urine using an optimised 7min gradient SFC method, where the use of the recommended column and co-solvent combination resulted in a significant improvement in chromatographic performance.

Pharmacokinetic variations in cancer patients with liver dysfunction: applications and challenges of pharmacometabolomics.

PURPOSE: In cancer patients, pharmacokinetic variations between individuals and within individuals due to impairments in organs' function and other reasons such as genetic polymorphisms represent a major problem in disease management, which can result in unpredictable toxicity and variable antineoplastic effects. Addressing pharmacokinetic variations in cancer patients with liver dysfunction and their implications on anticancer and analgesic drugs, in addition to the use of advanced analytical techniques such as metabolomics and pharmacometabolomics, to monitor altered kinetic and discover metabolic biomarkers during therapeutic intervention will help in understanding and reducing pharmacokinetic variations of drugs in cancer patients as a step forward towards personalised medicine. METHODS: Reviewing published literature addressing and/or related to complications resulting from altered pharmacokinetics (PKs) in cancer patients with liver dysfunction, anticancer and analgesic drugs, evaluating recent advances of pharmacokinetic detection using metabolomics/pharmacometabolomics and the challenges that are currently facing these techniques. RESULTS: The current situation presents a pressing need to reduce pharmacokinetic variations of drugs in cancer patients. Although most of the omics technologies are not entirely focussed on the study of pharmacokinetic variations and some studies are met with uncertainty, the use of pharmacometabolomics combined with other omics technology such as pharmacogenomics can provide clues to personalised cancer treatments by providing useful information about the cancer patient's response to medical interventions via identification of patients' dependent variables, understanding of correlations between individuals and population PKs, and therapy outcomes to achieve optimum therapeutic effects with minimum toxicity. We also propose an approach for PKs' evaluation using pharmacometabolomics.

An integrated ceramic, micro-fluidic device for the LC/MS/MS analysis of pharmaceuticals in plasma.

An integrated capillary scale (300 µm id) ceramic microfluidic LC system combined with MS/MS has been successfully employed for the quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical compounds in human plasma. The capillary ceramic microfluidic LC/MS/MS system showed an approximate 20-fold (range 11-38-fold) increase in sensitivity compared with a standard 2.1 mm scale UPLC/MS/MS system for a broad range of analytes. The loading capacity of the devices capillary separations channel allowed injection of 2 µL of an aqueous solution, and up to 1.2 µL of a typical protein-precipitated plasma sample, onto the reversed-phase chromatography system. The system also showed excellent chromatographic performance and robustness, with no deleterious effects on the chromatography observed over the course of 1000 injections of protein-precipitated plasma. The ability of the ceramic microfluidic LC/MS/MS system to deliver this level of sensitivity and performance enables the routine quantification of pharmaceutical compounds from small format samples, such as those obtained by dried blood spot or other blood microsampling approaches, to be performed.

Practical applications of integrated microfluidics for peptide quantification.

BACKGROUND: Increased pressure to obtain more, higher sensitivity data from less sample is especially critical for large peptides, whose already optimized LC-MS methods are heavily challenged by traditional ligand-binding assays. RESULTS: Critical bioanalytical assays were adapted to integrated microscale LC to reduce sample volumes while increasing sensitivity. Assays for teriparatide, glucagon and human insulin and five analogs were transferred from 2.1 mm analytical scale LC to a 150 µm scale system. This resulted in a 15-30 fold overall improvement in sensitivity derived from increased signal to noise, three to six fold reduction in injection volumes, and a two to five fold reduction in sample consumption. CONCLUSION: Integrated microscale LC reduces sample consumption while enabling single picomolar quantification for therapeutic and endogenous peptides.

Organic solvent and temperature-enhanced ion chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry for the determination of low molecular weight organic and inorganic anions.

There has recently been increased interest in coupling ion chromatography (IC) to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to enable highly sensitive and selective analysis. Herein, the first comprehensive study focusing on the direct coupling of suppressed IC to HRMS without the need for post-suppressor organic solvent modification is presented. Chromatographic selectivity and added HRMS sensitivity offered by organic solvent-modified IC eluents on a modern hyper-crosslinked polymeric anion-exchange resin (IonPac AS18) are shown using isocratic eluents containing 5-50 mM hydroxide with 0-80% methanol or acetonitrile for a range of low molecular weight anions (<165 Da). Comprehensive experiments on IC thermodynamics over a temperature range between 20-45 °C with the eluent containing up to 60% of acetonitrile or methanol revealed markedly different retention behaviour and selectivity for the selected analytes on the same polymer based ion-exchange resin. Optimised sensitivity with HRMS was achieved with as low as 30-40% organic eluent content. Analytical performance characteristics are presented and compared with other IC-MS based works. This study also presents the first application of IC-HRMS to forensic detection of trace low-order anionic explosive residues in latent human fingermarks.

Fabrication of an on-line enzyme micro-reactor coupled to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the digestion of recombinant human erythropoietin.

Our aim was to develop a fast and efficient on-line method using micro-reactors for the digestion and deglycosylation of recombinant human erythropoietin extracted from equine plasma. The trypsin digestion micro reactors were fabricated using fused silica capillaries with either a dextran-modified coating or a porous monolith that was able to immobilise the enzyme. These were both found to be reasonably robust and durable, with the trypsin immobilised on dextran-modified fused silica capillaries offering better reproducibility than the micro-reactor based upon covalent attachment of this enzyme to the polymer. It is also evident that the enzyme attached micro reactors produced some tryptic peptides in a greater yield than in-solution digestion. A peptide-N-glycosidase F reactor was also fabricated and, when coupled with the trypsin reactor, the deaminated peptides T5 DAM and T9 DAM from recombinant human erythropoietin could also be detected by LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis. These results were better than those achieved using off-line digestion plus deglycosylation reactions and the analysis required far less time and effort to complete. The use of this on-line approach improved the sensitivity, efficiency and speed of our confirmation methodology that is based upon detecting the unique peptide segments of recombinant human erythropoietin that has been affinity extracted from positive equine plasma samples.

Adenosine monophosphate is elevated in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of mice with acute respiratory toxicity induced by nanoparticles with high surface hydrophobicity.

Inhaled nanomaterials present a challenge to traditional methods and understanding of respiratory toxicology. In this study, a non-targeted metabolomics approach was used to investigate relationships between nanoparticle hydrophobicity, inflammatory outcomes and the metabolic fingerprint in bronchoalveolar fluid. Measures of acute lung toxicity were assessed following single-dose intratracheal administration of nanoparticles with varying surface hydrophobicity (i.e. pegylated lipid nanocapsules, polyvinyl acetate nanoparticles and polystyrene beads; listed in order of increasing hydrophobicity). Broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was collected from mice exposed to nanoparticles at a surface area dose of 220 cm(2) and metabolite fingerprints were acquired via ultra pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. Particles with high surface hydrophobicity were pro-inflammatory. Multivariate analysis of the resultant small molecule fingerprints revealed clear discrimination between the vehicle control and polystyrene beads (p < 0.05), as well as between nanoparticles of different surface hydrophobicity (p < 0.0001). Further investigation of the metabolic fingerprints revealed that adenosine monophosphate (AMP) concentration in BAL correlated with neutrophilia (p < 0.01), CXCL1 levels (p < 0.05) and nanoparticle surface hydrophobicity (p < 0.001). Our results suggest that extracellular AMP is an intermediary metabolite involved in adenine nucleotide-regulated neutrophilic inflammation as well as tissue damage, and could potentially be used to monitor nanoparticle-induced responses in the lung following pulmonary administration.

Ultra high resolution SFC-MS as a high throughput platform for metabolic phenotyping: application to metabolic profiling of rat and dog bile.

Ultra high resolution SFC-MS (on sub-2µm particles) coupled to mass spectrometry has been evaluated for the metabolic profiling of rat and dog bile. The selectivity of the SFC separation differed from that seen in previous reversed-phase UPLC-MS studies on bile, with the order of elution for analytes such as e.g., the bile acids showing many differences. The chromatography system showed excellent stability, reproducibility and robustness with relative standard deviation of less than 1% for retention time obtained over the course of the analysis. SFC showed excellent chromatographic performance with chromatographic peak widths in the order of 3s at the base of the peak. The use of supercritical fluid carbon dioxide as a mobile phase solvent also reduced the overall consumption of organic solvent by a factor of 3 and also reduced the overall analysis time by a factor of 30% compared to reversed-phase gradient LC. SFC-MS appear complementary to RPLC for the metabolic profiling of complex samples such as bile.

A facile and efficient strategy to enhance hydrophilicity of zwitterionic sulfoalkylbetaine type monoliths.

In order to prepare zwitterionic HILIC monolithic columns with high polarity, the highly hydrophilic monomer N,N-dimethyl-N-acryloyloxyethyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium betaine (SPDA) and crosslinker N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) were employed for developing a novel sulfoalkylbetaine type stationary phase. The polymerization parameters were systematically optimized in order to obtain a satisfactory performance for column permeability, mechanical stability, hydrophilicity, efficiency and selectivity. Compared to the previously reported poly(N,N-dimethyl-N-methacryloxyethyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium betaine-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) (poly(SPE-co-EDMA)) monolith and the poly(SPDA-co-EDMA) monolith that we developed, a significantly enhanced hydrophilicity was obtained on the poly(SPDA-co-MBA) monolithic column, illustrated by the lowered critical composition of the mobile phase corresponding to the transition from the HILIC to the RP mode. Excellent permeability, reproducibility and stability were achieved on this optimized poly(SPDA-co-MBA) monolith. A column efficiency of 70,000plates/m was obtained for the analysis of bases at a linear velocity of 1.95mm/s. As expected, by studying the influence of mobile phase pH and salt concentration on their retention, a weak electrostatic repulsion interaction for negatively charged analytes was also observed at low organic solvent content on the poly(SPDA-co-MBA) monolithic column. The final optimized poly(SPDA-co-MBA) monolith exhibited good selectivity for a series of polar compounds, such as phenols, bases, benzoic acid derivatives, small peptides, urea and allantoin.

Comparison of reversed-phase and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography for the quantification of ephedrines using medium-resolution accurate mass spectrometry.

The separation and quantification of hydrophilic basic compounds continues to challenge reversed-phase chromatography. Ephedrines are an example where the optimal separation of their isomers and related substances is complicated due to both their hydrophilicity and basic nature. Here we study two potential ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) methods and present the merits and limitations of a high pH reversed-phase and a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) approach for the separation and quantification of ephedrines for doping control analysis. The study compares a hybrid silica material used for the HILIC separations with a C18 reversed-phase material produced from the same hybrid silica. While both analytical approaches provide good retention and resolution, HILIC offers benefits in terms of peak shape, sample loading capacity and enhanced sensitivity with electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). HILIC permits favourable kinetic performance owing to the low viscosity mobile phase and hence better mass transfer characteristics. Common problems associated with HILIC including retention shifts and undesirable peak shapes are investigated and overcome using a suitable re-equilibration time and injection solvent. Validation data show both approaches provide good linearity (r>0.995), accuracy (RPLC<7.5% error, HILIC<7.6% error) and precision (RPLC<7.0% RSD, HILIC<10.3% RSD) for all analytes. Matrix effects were shown to have a negligible effect on ionisation variability in each mode, with inter-day retention times also being repeatable (<0.17% RSD). HILIC gave increased sensitivity with ESI-MS, giving a 6-fold increase in signal over the RPLC approach. In this application, we demonstrate the use of UHPLC technology coupled with a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight (QToF) mass analyser. This approach provides fast scanning medium-resolution accurate mass detection for reliable identification and quantification purposes.

Genome-wide association study reveals a complex genetic architecture underpinning-induced CYP3A4 enzyme activity.

Atypical cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) enzyme activity-induced and inhibited-is thought to be the driver of numerous poor or adverse therapeutic responses to up to 50 % of all commonly prescribed drugs. We carried out a genome-wide association study to identify common genetic variants associated with variation in induced CYP3A4 activity. A total of 310 twins were included in this study. Each participant had already completed a 14 days course of St John's Wort to induce CYP3A4, which was quantified through the metabolic ratio of exogenous 3-hydroxyquinine to quinine. We failed to detect any genome-wide significant associations (P < 1 × 10(-8)) with variation in induced CYP3A4 activity although several genomic regions were highlighted which may play minor roles. We report the first GWAS of variation in induced CYP3A4 activity and our preliminary results indicate a complex genetic architecture underpinning induced CYP3A4 enzyme activity.

Investigation of basic mobile phases with positive ESI LC-MS for metabonomics studies.

BACKGROUND: Accurate mass based LC-MS combined with statistical analysis is established as a core analytical technology for metabonomic studies. This is primarily due to the specificity, sensitivity and structural elucidation capabilities of the technology. The vast majority of these studies are performed using acidic-based mobile phases in combination with positive ESI mode LC-MS. Recent studies have investigated the use of highly basic pH mobile phases (>10 pH units) in bioanalytical studies that utilize positive ESI mode LC-MS. This non-traditional combination has been shown to improve analyte retention, chromatographic peak shape, and S/N for a variety of probe pharmaceutical compounds in biofluid samples. RESULTS: The incorporation of basic pH mobile phases resulted in increased retention for analytes that where comparatively weakly retained by a traditional acidic-modified mobile phase. Increased resolution of isomers, which otherwise co-eluted under acidic conditions, was observed. Moreover, the implementation of basic pH mobile phases further allowed for the detection of complementary marker ions. CONCLUSION: Basic pH mobile phases utilized with positive ESI mode LC-MS have the potential for producing increased information from metabonomic studies and could lead to the detection of analytes that may prove to be valid biomarkers.

Monolithic poly (SPE-co-BVPE) capillary columns as a novel hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography stationary phase for the separation of polar analytes.

A novel hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) stationary phase was prepared by the co-polymerisation of zwitterionic N,N'-dimethyl-N-methacryloxyethyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium betaine (SPE) and the crosslinker 1,2-bis(p-vinylphenyl) ethane (BVPE) in the presence of the porogens, toluene and methanol. Monolithic columns were produced by carrying out the α,α'-azoisobutyronitrile (AIBN) initiated reaction for 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 h inside a 200 µm i.d. fused silica capillary at 75°C (water bath). The optimum polymerisation time was shown to be 2 h, as this resulted in good porosity, due to enlarged flow-channels and the presence of a higher proportion of mesopores provided a relatively larger surface area than the other columns. The chromatographic properties of the optimised poly (SPE-co-BVPE) monolithic column were evaluated with test mixtures containing both basic and neutral compounds in the HILIC gradient separation mode. This produced relatively sharp peaks (average peak width at half height=0.1 min) with average asymmetry factors of 1.4 and baseline resolution was obtained for all the compounds. Using the isocratic separation of the test mixture, the number of theoretical plates (N) per metre calculated was between 26,888 and 35,930 by using average values obtained for triplicate injections of the compounds thiourea, toluene and acrylamide.

Investigation of microbore UPLC and nontraditional mobile phase compositions for bioanalytical LC-MS/MS.

BACKGROUND: The movement towards environmentally friendly or green chemistry solutions has gained more prominence recently in the scientific community. One way in which scientists can address this issue is to limit the use of hazardous chemicals in their everyday processes. Therefore, the focus of this study was on the utilization of microbore-scale chromatography and nontraditional alcoholic mobile phases as an alternative approach to traditional bioanalytical LC-MS/MS assay parameters. RESULTS: Replacement of the traditional narrowbore LC column with a microbore format reduced solvent consumption and produced a greater than threefold increase in S/N. The nontraditional alcoholic mobile phases, ethanol or isopropanol, produced either greater peak area counts, or S/N, for over half of the compounds evaluated, compared with the traditional organic mobile phases of acetonitrile and methanol. These nontraditional alcoholic mobile phases also showed improved capability in the removal of plasma phospholipid components from the chromatographic column. The ionizable background detected in each of the organic mobile phases utilized in this study produced a unique background that may or may not interfere with compounds undergoing analysis. CONCLUSION: The combination of microbore columns and nontraditional alcoholic mobile phases has been shown to produce effective, alternative method conditions to traditional bioanalytical LC-MS/MS method parameters.

Comparison of reversed-phase and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography for the separation of ephedrines.

The separation of highly basic solutes is an ongoing challenge, especially in achieving suitable retention and peak shapes for compounds such as ephedrines that have both high pK(a) values (≥ 9.3) and low lipophilicity (log P ≤ 1.74). In this study we investigate the application of HILIC as a potential alternative approach for the fast separation of the ephedrines phenylpropanolamine, cathine, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and methylephedrine in doping control analysis. Using sub-2 µm bare silica bridged-ethylene hybrid (BEH) HILIC material, we evaluate the effects of organic modifier, buffer pH and concentration and column temperature on the retention and selectivity of these compounds. Highly symmetrical peak shapes for all ephedrines were achieved under HILIC conditions (A(s0.1) ≤ 1.1). We also compare the kinetic performance of the optimised HILIC separation with a previously developed high pH reversed-phase approach. van Deemter curves and kinetic plots for the two approaches are constructed and illustrate the kinetic benefits of HILIC over the reversed-phase approach. Improved mass transfer characteristics and enhanced diffusion with HILIC offers lower C-term coefficients of 1.46 and 5.68 for ephedrine with HILIC and RPLC, respectively.

UV gradient combined with principal component analysis: highly sensitive and specific high performance liquid chromatography analysis of cosmetic creams.

HPLC has been employed to develop a method for the analysis of cosmetic creams, in particular the compounds hydroquinone, phenol and six preservatives have been studied. UV tuning was optimized as a gradient to achieve lower limits of detection compared to those of a previously validated method. In addition the chromatograms were then exported, aligned and visualized in a principal component analysis (PCA) model. The results were the highly efficient separation of the eight studied compounds. All the compounds showed good linear correlation coefficients (≥ 0.9997), the detection limit was found to be in the range of 15-200 ng/mL, a 10-fold improvement for the preservatives on previous methodology and the average recovery was within limits between 83% and 117% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 3.6% (n=6). The PCA plot was constructed from the UV optimized cosmetic samples chromatograms from real samples, real samples that were spiked and quality controls. Quality controls contained the eight compounds and showed complete clustering in the PCA and three spiked samples containing six to seven toxic components clustered in the same quadrant. The method is highly sensitive and its potential use as a method that could be employed in the control of cosmetics, particularly those containing banned or suspected toxic additives, has been demonstrated.

Determination of trace amount of enantiomeric impurity in therapeutic nicotine derivative using capillary electrophoresis with new imaging technology detection.

One of the many attempts to stop the danger of tobacco smoking is the development of an anti-smoking vaccine using nicotine butyric acid (NBA) linked to a carrier protein to produce anti-nicotine antibodies. NBA is a chiral molecule and there is a need to obtain a high degree of enantiomeric purity. The aim of this work is to develop a novel method for the enantioseparation of NBA and the determination of trace amounts of enantiomeric impurity required by regulatory authorities. This was achieved successfully using high-performance capillary electrophoresis combined with label-free intrinsic imaging as new imaging technology. A 50 µm id fused-silica capillary was used with UV detection at λ(214 ) nm and label-free intrinsic imaging. The background electrolyte consisted of highly sulphated ß-cyclodextrin 10% m/V as a chiral selector in 75 mM phosphoric acid-triethylamine at pH 7.0. Baseline separation and detection of 0.1% and possibly less of the unwanted impurity (R-enantiomer) were achieved. Also, the detection limits were calculated for both enantiomers. The use of label-free intrinsic imaging has improved the sensitivity, enabling us to detect trace amounts of enantiomeric impurities.