**Abstract**

Alkaloids are distributed in plant kingdom and play important role in protection, germination as well as plant growth stimulants. Most of them are chiral compounds and are clinically administered as the racemic mixture, even though its enantiomers have been known to exert different pharmacological activity. Liquid chromatography using chiral stationary phases (CSP) proved to be an essential tool with a wide range of applications, including analysis of the stereochemistry of natural compounds. This review gives an overview of chiral separation alkaloids that were used in theoretical studies and/or applications in recent years. It shows the possibilities of polysaccharide CSPs have now also been established as the first-choice of chiral phases for enantiomer separation.

**Keywords:** chiral alkaloid, sample preparation, enantiomer separation, chiral stationary phase

## **1. Introduction**

Over the centuries, humans have depended on nature for their essential needs of food supplies, shelters, apparel, transport means, fertilizers, flavors and fragrances, and the last not but least, medicines. Sophisticated traditional medicine systems have been generated by the plants over thousands of years. Moreover, plants maintain the significant sources of modern remedies for humanity. Additionally, according to WHO, 80% of the world's population—primarily those of developing countries rely on plant-derived medicines for their healthcare [1]. People continue to consider nature as a source of potential chemotherapeutic agents. Over 50% of clinical drugs all over the world are the product of natural plants and their derivatives. While more than 25% of the total are extracted from higher plants [2].

History of pharmacy was for centuries identical with the history of pharmacognosy, or study of materia medica, which were obtained from natural sources mostly plants but minerals, animals, and fungi. Chirality is one of the universal phenomena in nature. For instance, chiral biomolecules such as amino acids, sugars, proteins and nucleic acids have created living organisms. In natural surroundings, these biomolecules are present in one of the two possible enantiomeric forms, e.g., amino acids in the L-form and sugars in the D-form. Living organisms show variation in biological responses to one of a couple of enantiomers in medicines due to the chirality [3].

A range of chemicals that accurate enzymatic metamorphosis defines stereochemical configurations. Consequently, there is a certain chirality in most organic compounds in nature. It is important to emphasize that some phytochemicals exist in only one enantiomeric form, while others the optical rotation of the metabolite can be different [4].
