Evaluation of enantioselective gas chromatography for the determination of minute deviations from racemic composition of alpha-amino acids with emphasis on tyrosine: accuracy and precision of the method

Whereas the determination of high enantiomeric fractions (EF) of chiral compounds is very well established, the accurate determination of small deviations from racemic compositions has not yet received much attention despite its relevance to studies dealing with the origin of homochirality, where only small initial enantiomeric bias is expected. Racemic samples of representative alpha-amino acids were derivatized as N-(O,S)-trifluoroacetyl/ethylesters and analyzed by enantioselective gas chromatography (GC) on fused silica capillaries coated with the chiral stationary phases (CSPs) Chirasil-D-Val, Chirasil-L-Val, and Lipodex E with GC/FID and GC/MS detection. The validation (accuracy and precision) of the determination of the enantiomeric fraction EF of the D-enantiomer in racemic or near-racemic compositions for 10 DL-alpha-amino acids obtained from commercial sources has been carried out. Emphasis is given to DL-tyrosine, the enantiomers of which have recently been claimed to show different crystallization properties. Values of EF obtained from GC measurements using CSPs were compared with those from CE using chiral mobile phase additives. While the precision of the GC method is generally better than 0.08% for all DL-alpha-amino acids studied, accuracy (trueness) of determination of amino acids with polar side chains is poorer than expected from the precision as a result of systematic errors. The accuracy determined relied on measurements on two oppositely configurated CSPs.