High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of proquazone and its m-hydroxy metabolite in spiked human plasma and urine

A simple and rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of proquazone (PQZ) and its major metabolite, m-hydroxyproquazone, in spiked human plasma and urine was developed. Plasma samples were purified using acetonitrile as a protein precipitant, while urine samples were diluted only with the mobile phase and filtered prior to injection. Samples containing the parent compounds and glafenine (internal standard) were eluted from a reversed-phase C8 column using acetonitrile-0.025 M sodium acetate (60 + 40) adjusted to pH 5 as the mobile phase and detected at 234 nm. Peak area ratios of the analytes versus internal standard were used for calibration. The mean recoveries from plasma and urine samples spiked with PQZ and its m-hydroxy metabolite ranged from 97.87 to 103.88%. The relative standard deviation for the within- and between-day analyses were < 4%. The proposed method was applied for the assay of PQZ in laboratory-made tablets.