Stereochemical Study of Sphingosine by Vibrational Circular Dichroism.

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) was first applied to the stereochemical analysis of sphingosine. VCD patterns derived from the C═C stretch as well as other mid-infrared (IR) regions were practical markers to discriminate all the stereoisomers of intact sphingosine. Glutaraldehyde was found as an excellent derivatizing reagent for sphingosine which improves its solubility in VCD-friendly nonpolar solvents such as chloroform and enhances the VCD intensities by forming a rigid cyclized structure.