High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of (-)-N-Formylnorephedrine in Plasma

Abstract

An HPLC procedure for the detection and quantitative estimation of (-)-N-formylnorephedrine in rabbit plasma had been developed. The procedure involved the extraction of (-)-N-formylnorephedrine from plasma spiked with the internal standard (phenacetin), using ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate extract is evaporated under nitrogen and the residue is reconstituted in water and injected onto the column. A u-Bondapak-C18 column 30 cm × 3.9 mm ID was used. The mobile phase is 20% acetonitrile in water; at a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min and uv detection at 256 nm. A linear relationship between concentration and peak height ratio (I/internal standard) was obtained (r = 1.00). The reported procedure allows the measurement of (-)-formylnorephedrine in concentrations as low as 150 ng/ml of plasma with total procedure time of about 10 min. The applicability of the procedure to pharmacokinetic studies is illustrated and metabolites are shown not to interfere with the assay procedure.