The goal of the present research has been to develop a selective analytical detection procedure for the easy identification and assay of drugs and related substances present in complex mixtures, without a chromatographic separation step or other work up. The detector of choice is circular dichroism (CD) spectropolarimetry which has the appropriate balance between degree of analytical selectivity and breadth of application. Applications that are described are selected from work carried out in the context of forensic, clinical, and pharmaceutical chemistries, and specifically include discussions of the analyses of enantiomeric mixtures of nicotine and cocaine, the D and E vitamins, and cholesterol and other steroids.

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Circular dichroism spectra have been characterized for nine penicillins and three cephalosporins dissolved In aqueous pH 5.4 buffer solutions. Discriminations among either the penicillin or the cephalosporin homologues are not possible from these spectral data, but the distinction between the two groups Is easy. Direct determinations of penicillin V present In prepared laboratory mixtures with lactose, starch, caffeine, and cephalothln and In pharmaceutical preparations were accomplished after a simple extraction Into aliquots of the buffer. Correspondence between the experimental and theoretical results was better than 1 % for the prepared samples and within a few percent for the pharmaceutical preparations.