A new validated HPLC method for the determination of sulforaphane: application to study pharmacokinetics of sulforaphane in rats

A simple, accurate and reproducible high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed and validated for the quantification of sulforaphane (SF) in rat plasma. The method involves a simple liquid–liquid extraction procedure to extract both SF and 7‐hyrdoxycoumarin, the internal standard. The chromatographic analysis was achieved on a Shimadzu LC 20A HPLC system equipped with a Zorbax Eclipse XDB C₁₈ column and an isocratic mobile phase consisting of 10 mm KH₂PO₄ (pH 4.5) and acetonitrile HPLC grade (40:60, v/v) run at a flow rate of 1 mL/min for 10 min. The UV detection wavelength was set at 202 nm. The method exhibited good linearity (R² > 0.999) over the assayed concentration range (0.05–2 μg/mL) and demonstrated good intra‐ and inter‐day precision and accuracy (relative standard deviations and the deviation from predicted values were <15%). This method was also successfully applied for studying the pharmacokinetics of SF in spontaneously hypertensive rats following single oral dietary doses of SF. The pharmacokinetics of SF show linear behavior at the dose range investigated in this study. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.