HPLC Analysis of Cotinine in Urine After SPE with a Cholesterol-Modified Adsorbent

A one-step solid-phase extraction procedure, based on a new silica gel adsorbent modified with cholesterol groups, has been investigated for measurement of cotinine in urine. Cotinine is the main metabolite of nicotine in the human body and is analyzed as a biomarker for assessment of direct or passive exposure to tobacco smoke. New cholesterol-modified adsorbents have been obtained by chemical modification of silica gel of different porosity with cholesterol ligands. Although recovery by this extraction procedure were optimum over a relatively broad range of sample pH (3.1–8.0), analytical conditions such as sample loading, washing and elution conditions, concentration of cotinine to be extracted, and the type of adsorbent used for extraction were found to affect the efficiency of the procedure and had to be controlled for optimum recovery. When these conditions were controlled, recovery of cotinine from spiked human urine was reproducible and depended on compound ionization. Quantitative analysis of cotinine was performed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. Presented at: Conference of the Hyphenation of Liquid Chromatography–Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry and Related Topics, Tuebingen, Germany, March 25–29, 2006.