Resolution of isoborneol and its isomers by GC/MS to identify “synthetic” and “semi-synthetic” borneol products

Borneol is a plant terpene commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. Optically pure (+)-borneol and (−)-borneol can be obtained by extraction from the plants Dipterocarpaceae and Blumea balsamifera, respectively. “Synthetic borneol” is obtained from the reduction of (±)-camphor to lead to four different stereoisomers: (+)-isoborneol, (−)-isoborneol, (+)-borneol, and (−)-borneol. In contrast, “semi-synthetic borneol” is produced from the reduction of natural camphor, (+)-camphor, to afford two isomers: (−)-isoborneol and (+)-borneol. We established a convenient method to identify them by treating the four stereoisomers with two chiral reagents, (R)-(+)-α-methoxy-α-trifluoromethylphenylacetyl chloride ((R)-(+)-MTPA-Cl) and (1S)-(−)- camphanic chloride. The resulting derivatives from the above mentioned method were analyzed by gas chromatography. The enantiomers of (+)- and (−)-isoborneol were successfully separated from (+)- and (−)-borneol isomers in this study to make this a useful method in the identification of “synthetic” and “semi-synthetic” borneols. Furthermore, we also examined five different commercial borneols. During this course, a novel and unprecedented partial epimerization from isoborneol-camphanic ester to borneol-camphanic ester was observed. However, this phenomenon did not occur in isoborneol-MTPA esters epimerization to borneol-MTPA case under the same conditions. The DFT calculation of activation energies for both reactions was in a good agreement with the results obtained from GC analysis.