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In a first step, 26 chiral stationary phases (CSPs) have been screened for the separation of (-)-α-thujone, (+)-β-thujone epimers and camphor enantiomers by LC. The separations were monitored by a polarimeter detector. None of these CSPs provided a noticeable resolution for camphor enantiomers. The three components of a test mixture were clearly baseline separated on Chiralpak AS-H, Chiralpak AZ-H and TCI-MBS (poly(N-alpha-(S)-methylbenzylmaleimide) coated on silica gel) in a mobile phase composed of hexane/2-PrOH (99:1 v/v). Interestingly, for a preparative application, the three CSPs produced different elution orders for the three constituents of the mixture. In a second step, it is shown that the use of online polarimetric detection constitutes an unprecedented method to reveal the occurrence and the relative content of thujone epimers and the chirality of the major camphor enantiomer in crude essential oils. A proof of concept is illustrated on crude essential oils from Rosmarinus tournefortii, Artemisia herba alba and A. arborescens, which grow in Morocco and have several traditional uses there. In a third step, pure (+)-β-thujone was quantitatively collected from A. arborescens crude oil by semi-preparative HPLC on Chiralpak AZ-H monitored by a polarimeter.

An unprecedented methodology was developed to simultaneously assign the relative percentages of the major chiral compounds and their prevailing enantiomeric form in crude essential oils (EOs). In a first step the infrared (IR) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra of the crude essential oils were recorded and in a second step they were modelized as a linear weighted combination of the IR and VCD spectra of the individual spectra of pure enantiomer of the major chiral compounds present in the EOs. The VCD spectra of enantiomer of known enantiomeric excess shall be recorded if they are not yet available in a library of VCD spectra. For IR, the spectra of pure enantiomer or racemic mixture can be used. The full spectra modelizations were performed using a well known and powerful mathematical model (least square estimation: LSE) which resulted in a weighting of each contributing compound. For VCD modelization, the absolute value of each weighting represented the percentage of the associate compound while the attached sign addressed the correctness of the enantiomeric form used to build the model. As an example, a model built with the non-prevailing enantiomer will show a negative sign of the weighting value. For IR spectra modelization, the absolute value of each weighting represented the percentage of the compounds without of course accounting for the chirality of the prevailing enantiomers. Comparison of the weighting values issuing from IR and VCD spectra modelizations is a valuable source of information: if they are identical, the EOs are composed of nearly pure enantiomers, if they are different the chiral compounds of the EOs are not in an optically pure form. The method was applied on four samples of essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba in which the three major compounds namely (-)-α-thujone, (+)-β-thujone and (-)-camphor were found in different proportions as determined by GC-MS and chiral HPLC using polarimetric detector. In order to validate the methodology, the modelization of the VCD spectra was performed on purpose using the individual VCD spectra of (-)-α-thujone, (+)-β-thujone and (+)-camphor instead of (-)-camphor. During this work, the absolute configurations of (-)-α-thujone and (+)-β-thujone were confirmed by comparison of experimental and calculated VCD spectra as being (1S,4R,5R) and (1S,4S,5R) respectively.

Chitosan-based nanoparticles (CSNP) were prepared through ionic cross-linking and gelation of chitosan (CS) by tripolyphosphate (TPP). CS properties such as molecular weight, and preparation conditions were screened and the resulting nanoparticles were examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained particles were consistently spherical with an overall diameter of approximately 107 ± 20 nm. They were successfully used as a carrier for Zidovudine, an anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which, to our knowledge, is novel. The encapsulation ability, loading capacity, and controlled release behavior for these CSNP was evaluated. Results indicated that their intrinsic properties were strongly affected by properties inherent to CS such as molecular weight, and by the preparation condition, such as cross-linking density, which depends on the concentration of the cross-linker. In vitro release tests for the entrapped zidovudine showed that the CNNP provided a continuous release that can last upwards 20 h.