Title:Enantiomeric Profiling of Chiral Pharmacologically Active Compounds in the Environment with the Usage of Chiral Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Tandem Mass Spectrometry
VOLUME: 12 ISSUE: 4
Author(s):Dolores Camacho-Munoz, Bruce Petrie, Erika Castrignanò and Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern
Affiliation:Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, P.O. Box: BA2 7AY, Bath, United Kingdom.
Keywords:Analysis, chiral chromatography, chiral drugs, environment, mass spectrometry, pharmaceuticals, wastewater.
Abstract:The issue of drug chirality is attracting increasing attention among the scientific community.
The phenomenon of chirality has been overlooked in environmental research (environmental occurrence,
fate and toxicity) despite the great impact that chiral pharmacologically active compounds
(cPACs) can provoke on ecosystems. The aim of this paper is to introduce the topic of chirality and its
implications in environmental contamination. Special attention has been paid to the most recent advances
in chiral analysis based on liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and the
most popular protein based chiral stationary phases. Several groups of cPACs of environmental relevance,
such as illicit drugs, human and veterinary medicines were discussed. The increase in the number
of papers published in the area of chiral environmental analysis indicates that researchers are actively pursuing new
opportunities to provide better understanding of environmental impacts resulting from the enantiomerism of cPACs.
