Abstract
The potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent, sulindac, (Z) -5-fluoro-2-methyl-1-{[4-(methylsulfinyl) - phenyl]methylene} -1H-indene-3-acetic acid, has been examined by 1H NMR as its methyl ester in CDCl3 solution with the added achiral lanthanide shift reagent (LSR) tris (6,6,7,7,8,8,8-heptafluoro-2,2-dimethyl-3,5-octanedionato) europium (III), Eu (FOD)3, 2, for spectral simplification, and with the chiral LSRs, tris[3-(heptafluoropropylhydroxymethylene) - (+) - camphorato] europium (III), 3, and tris[3-(trifluoromethyl-hydroxymethylene) - (+) -camphorato] europium (III), 4, to induce enantiomeric shift differences (ΔΔδ) for several nuclei. Studies employed 60 and 300 MHz spectrometers. At the higher frequency, analytically useful ΔΔδ values were observed with added 3 for the aryl protons ortho to the methylsulfinyl group that should permit direct determinations of enantiomeric excess (% ee). By conversion of sulindac samples to the methyl ester, use of 3 would then formally constitute an ee determination of sulindac.