RETENTION PROPERTIES OF CYCLODEXTRINS AND MODIFIED CYCLODEXTRINS IN REVERSED-PHASE HPLC

In the course of systematic studies on the solubility, hydrophobicity and complexation properties of cyclodextrins and modified cyclodextrins, the retention behavior of alpha, beta, gamma and of some glycosylated cyclodextrins has been examined by means of reverse phase HPLC. Mobile phase mixtures containing large amounts of water have been used because of the possible application of such systems to biological studies. Mobile phase mixtures with both methanol and acetonitrile show a linear relationship between the volume fraction of the organic part of the mobile phase and the logarithm of the capacity factor. The extrapolation of capacity factors to a total aquous system are used and compared to other techniques (including solubility) in order to evaluate the hydrophobic properties of the cyclodextrins. In particular, the solubility of cyclodextrins has been explored for a wide range of organic solvent/water mixtures. Whilst beta cyclodextrins are definitely the most hydrophobic, followed by glycosylated beta cyclodextrins, the others behave differently in the two mobile phase systems. The differences observed in the results are related to the chemical nature of the organic phase. Comparisons between chromatographic and solubility methods are given and interpretations are proposed. Some cyclodextrins have been modified to increase or modify not only the hydrophobicity but also the solubility, the complexation and the molecular recognition of drugs. The most important aim of this study was to define conditions and rules for further drug vectorization by cyclodextrin-drug complexation.