Preparative separation and identification of derivatized β-methylphenylalanine enantiomers by chiral SFC, HPLC and NMR for development of new peptide ligand mimetics in drug discovery

A direct preparative purification of all four isomers of the unnatural amino acid β-methylphenylalanine was achieved using supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) with stacked-injection. Final purification of the Cbz-methyl ester derived isomers was performed on a Daicel Chiralpak AD-H column (20 mm × 250 mm), using 50:50 methanol/ethanol as the organic modifier and resulted in purification of over 3.4 g of material in 6.25 h with >90% total recovery. The absolute stereochemical assignment of the purified amino acids was determined through a combination of chiral HPLC, NMR and optical rotation studies. To our knowledge, this is the first reported preparative approach that has yielded all four compounds in a single chromatographic run.