Determination of Ticarcillin in Serum by Reversed Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

Ticarcillin is a semi-synthetic penicillin useful against several Pseudomonas species. In order to easily quantitate this drug, a new procedure was developed whereby ticarcillin in serum is converted to its free acid form by the addition of citric acid and, subsequently, extracted into ethyl acetate. The organic extract which contains the nonionized form of ticarcillin is dried under nitrogen, the sample is reconstituted with mobile phase and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. Elution is completed in less than five minutes. The assay is linear from 1 mg/L through 100 mg/L. The correlation coefficient of ticarcillin concentration to peak area (r) was 0. 999 over this concentration range. The small sample volume (100 yl) makes this assay particularly suitable for pediatric patients.