Determination of neomycin in plasma and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography. Application to a preliminary pharmacokinetic study.

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for the determination of neomycin in plasma and urine. The plasma was deproteinated with trichloroacetic acid and centrifuged. The supernatant was mixed with ion-pair concentrate and centrifuged again. The resultant supernatant was analyzed by HPLC. Urine was centrifuged to remove debris, if any, mixed with ion-pair concentrate and analyzed directly by HPLC. The HPLC conditions consisted of an ion-pairing mobile phase, a reversed-phase column, post-column derivatization with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) reagent and fluorescence detection. The overall average recovery of neomycin was 97 and 113% from plasma spiked at 0.25-1.0 micrograms/ml, using standard curves prepared in plasma extract and in water, respectively, and 94% for urine spiked at 1-10 micrograms/ml using a standard curve prepared in water. The method was used to detect neomycin in plasma and urine obtained from animals injected intramuscularly with neomycin. Various pharmacokinetic parameters of neomycin were also determined from its profile of plasma concentration versus time.