Determination of Propylthiouracil in Human Breast Milk by Direct Injection High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatographic(HPLC) method was developed for the assay of propylthiouracil in human breast milk. After filtration with membran filter(Molcut II), the eluent was injected into a liquid chromatogaph equipped with C₁₈ precolumn and analytical column in series according to column switching techniques. This method is sufficiently sensitive for most pharmacokinetic studies in human breast milk. The concentration of propylthiouracil was linear over the 50 – 5000ng/ml range. The recovery and the coefficient of variation was 92.0 – 100.6% and 1.6 – 2.9%, respectivery. This assay has the advantages of specificity, simplicity and reproducibility for the measurement of propylthiouracil in human breast milk.