Effect of column temperature on the behaviour of some angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors during high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis

The chromatographic behaviour of the ACE inhibitors lisinopril, enalapril and its two degradation products, enalaprilat (hydrolytic degradation product) and diketopiperazine (DKP) (cyclization degradation product) was studied as a function of column temperature and pH of the mobile phase. The rate of isomerization (which influences the peak shape or even peak splitting during chromatographic analysis) increases with temperature. The shape of the chromatographic peak for enalapril, enalaprilat and lisinopril is also pH dependent. At high temperature (80°C) and low pH (pH=2) all studied compounds appear on the chromatogram as a narrow chromatographic peak. Chromatographic peaks become broader or they split by lowering the column temperature. Enalapril appears at 6°C on the chromatogram in two peaks which belong to its cis- and trans-rotation isomers. Separation of the rotamers was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy.