ABSTRACT
The olfactory epithelium being chiral as a sheer consequence of the molecular composition of biological tissue invokes a natural ability to differentiate between two enantiomers. The most popular approach to the separation of enantiomeric pairs involves diastereomorphous interaction with a chiral environment. The precise knowledge of enantiomeric ratios of flavor compounds has become of interest, for instance, in the authenticity control of foodstuffs and essential oils as well as in the composition and preparation of fragrances and perfumes. The enantiomer separation was verified using a column coated with a mirror image stationary phase. The first attempts to use chiral metal coordination compounds as enantioselective stationary phases for gas-chromatographic (GC) enantiomer separation were undertaken by Schurig and Gil-Av in 1971. The odor quality of limonene being critically dependent on its enantiomer composition, a large number of separation experiments by GC are reported in the literature.
