A simple and rapid 3D view method for selective and sensitive determination of paclitaxel in micro volume rat plasma by LC-diode array UV and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

A simple, highly repeatable and reproducible method for the estimation of Paclitaxel (TAX) in micro volume amounts of rat plasma is successfully developed and validated. The extraction procedure using 800 μL of ice-cold acetonitrile is very simple and economical with high sensitivity. The rectangular ratiograms and purity curve demonstrate the selectivity of the method. The validation and stability results show that propylparaben (PP) is a suitable internal standard (resolution 7.70 ± 0.15 min) for the estimation of TAX in micro volume rat plasma. TAX and PP are separated by isocratic reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array UV method with a retention time of 8.0 ± 0.25 and 5.3 ± 0.15 min, respectively, with a total run time of 10 min. The system suitability results show that the method has good reproducibility. The stability of TAX is well studied in rat plasma, and the % RSD of all stability studies of TAX are well within the acceptable range of ± 20 % at the lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) and ± 15% at all quality control levels. The limit of detection (LOD) and LLOQ of the method are 5 and 10 ng/mL, respectively. This rapid method is successfully used to study the i.v pharmacokinetic of TAX at 10 mg/kg in wistar rats, and drug concentration is detected up to 24 h.