chiral drugs

Chirality in drug action is getting greater attention in medical practice these days, as two enantiomers of a chiral drug may differ in their bioavailability, rate of metabolism, excretion, potency and selectively for a particular receptor in the body. The drug in the form recemates, consisting of an equimolar mixture of two enantiomers, generally causes side effects in the body, because one of the isomer is active while other is not. About more than half of the drugs currently in use are chiral compounds and nearly 90% are marketed as recemates. Chiral separation is one of the methods to separate two isomers of racemic compound. In an new approach, we synthesized a novel carbohydrate derived gemini surfactants and explore them for encapsulation of some poorly water soluble drugs and chiral recognition of some aromatic α-amino acids, these gemini surfactants can be used to chiral recognition of isomers of chiral drugs.