Simultaneous analysis of thiamphenicol and its prodrug thiamphenicol glycinate in human plasma and urine by high performance liquid chromatography: application to pharmacokinetic study

A simple and sensitive method for simultaneous determination of the active compound, thiamphenicol (TAP) and its prodrug, thiamphenicol glycinate (TG) in human plasma and urine is described. The procedure involved extraction of TG and TAP with ethyl acetate (plasma) or 100-fold dilution with the mobile phase (urine) followed by determination by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection at 224 nm. Separation of the compounds was achieved on a column packed with Hypersil ODS2. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-water containing 0.003 M tetrabutyl ammonium bromide and 0.056 M ammonium acetate (87:13, v/v) with a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The chromatograms did not contain interfering peaks due to the suitable extraction procedure and chromatographic conditions. The calibration curves of TG and TAP were linear ranging from 0.78 to 100 microg/ml in plasma and in urine. The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations (S.D.) were less than 10%. The recoveries of TG and TAP in plasma and urine were above 80%. TG was not stable in plasma samples and after extraction at ambient temperature or in freeze-thaw cycles, and hence the samples for injection on HPLC column should be stored in refrigerator or under ice cooling prior to analysis, and the plasma samples should not experience the freeze-thaw cycle more than one time. Unlike TAP, TG could not be detected in most urine samples. Application of this method demonstrated that it was feasible for the clinical pharmacokinetic study.