What is it about?

Synthesized amino acids are usually found as racemic mixtures. The separation of the R-amino acid from the S-amino acid is a challenging process because they are similar molecules differing only on the three-dimensional arrangements of their atoms around a chiral center. In this work, we were able to separate the enantiomers of aromatic amino acids using capillary electrophoresis and cyclodextrins.

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Why is it important?

Amino acids are of importance to various disciplines such as nutrition, medicine, and biochemistry among others. It is well known that enantiomers have different biological and pharmaceutical activities. Therefore, separations of these compounds are of utmost importance to all these sciences. It has been reported that in many instances that one of the enantiomers is the active compound while the other one is either inactive or even toxic.

Perspectives

This is an excellent addition to the literature because theoretical calculations were used to corroborate the experimental results and to explain the mechanism of interaction between the chiral selector and the analytes.

Professor FakhrEldin O. Suliman
Sultan Qaboos University

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This page is a summary of: Capillary electrophoresis and molecular modeling of the chiral separation of aromatic amino acids using α/β‐cyclodextrin and 18‐crown‐6, Electrophoresis, February 2021, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/elps.202000290.
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