Enantiomeric separation of antidepressant drug fluoxetine based on chiral membranes

In this study, the enantiomeric separation of antidepressant drug fluoxetine (FLX) was carried out using chiral selector-immobilized polyethersulfone (PES) membranes. For this purpose, the chiral selectors BSA, Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) and α-cyclodextrine (α-CD) were adsorbed on PES membranes by the static adsorption at different pH values. Chemical and electrokinetic characterizations of modified membranes were done by Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and by an electrokinetic analyzer (EKA), respectively. FTIR and EKA analysis were particularly employed in order to evaluate the immobilization efficiency. Racemic FLX was ultrafiltrated with the chiral selective membranes using the stirred ultrafiltration cell. The effectiveness of chiral separation was characterized in terms of the values of enantiomeric excess (ee%) in permeate. During the ultrafiltration, the samples taken from permeate were analyzed with liquid chromatography system using Chiralpak AD-H column for the determination of R-FLX and S-FLX enantiomers. The ees values of BSA and CRL in the permeate were approximately equal.