Simultaneous chiral separation of tramadol and methadone in tablets, human urine, and plasma by capillary electrophoresis using maltodextrin as the chiral selector

Abstract The stereoselective analysis and separation of racemic drugs play an important role in pharmaceutical industry to eliminate the unwanted isomer and find the right therapeutic control for the patient. Present study suggests a maltodextrin‐modified capillary electrophoresis method for a single‐run chiral separation of two closely similar opiate pain relief drugs: tramadol (TRA) and methadone (MET). The best separation method possible for the both enantiomers was achieved on an uncoated fused‐silica capillary at 25°C using 100 mM phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) containing 20% (w v −1 ) maltodextrin with dextrose equivalent of 4–7 and an applied voltage of 16 kV. Under optimal conditions, the baseline resolution of TRA and MET enantiomers was obtained in less than 12 minutes. The relative standard deviations ( n = 3) of 20 μg mL −1 TRA and MET were 2.28% and 3.77%, respectively. The detection limits were found to be 2 μg mL −1 for TRA and 1.5 μg mL −1 for MET. This method was successfully applied to the measurement of drugs concentration in their tablets, urine, and plasma samples.