Naproxen belongs to a class of pharmaceuticals referred to as non-steroidal anti

Question

Naproxen belongs to a class of pharmaceuticals referred to as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDS. For Naproxen, the (S)-(+)-enantiomer is the desired pharmacological activity while the (R)-(-) -enantiomer is potentially a liver toxin. Due to this, commercial Naproxen is soles the (S)-(+)-enantiomer with high levels of optical purity. Briefly explain how you would resolve a racemic mixture of Naproxen to obtain the (S)-(+)-enantiomer in high enantiomer excess. (You may not talk about enzymes in your answer)

Explanation / Answer

We can efficienty separate S-(+)-naproxen from R-(-)-naproxen with the help of chromatography. We can take methyl - beta - cyclodextrin as the mobile phase and the mixture of R and S - naproxen is taken as the stationary phase.

Now when the stationary phase is passed over the mobile phase, each of the R and S enantiomer interact differently with methyl - beta - cyclodextrin (mobile phase) with different elution time and hence are collected at different region of chromatograaphic plase.

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