High-performance liquid-chromatographic separation of ofloxacin using a chiral stationary phase.

A new chiral liquid-chromatographic method was developed for the enantiomeric separation of ofloxacin with a fluorescence detector. The enantiomers of ofloxacin were baseline resolved on a Chiralcel OD-H (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) column using a mobile-phase system containing hexane-ethanol-methanol-acetic acid-diethylamine (70/20/10/0.45/0.05, v/v/v/v/v). The presence of diethylamine in the mobile phase has played an important role in enhancing the chromatographic efficiency and resolution between enantiomers.