Sensitive High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Mebeverine in Plasma Using Fluorescence Detection

Abstract

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for mebeverine (MB) determination in plasma is described. Sample preparation involves extraction of MB and Ibuprofen (internal standard) from 0.5 ml plasma. The analysis is carried out on reversed-phase chromatographic system using U-Bondapack C₁₈ column with a mobile phase consisting of water: acetonitrile:acetic acid (59:40:1) mixture. The effluent was monitored using a fluoremetric detection at excitation and emission wave lengths 270 and 362 nm, respectively. The method gave accurate, precise and reproducible results with high sensitivity. The within-day coefficients of variation ranged from 2.5 to 6.1% and between-days from 7.5 to 13.5% at four different concentrations. Injection-volumes containing as small amount of MB as 0.5 ng in plasma was detected. This method was applied to a bioavailability study with a single 10 mg/kg oral dose in two rabbits.