Abstract:
Quantitative analysis of(
l)-ephedrine(
l-Ep)and(
d)-pseudoephedrine(
d-Ps )in plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC)is described.The newly developed method is based on a precolumn derivatization with 5-dimethyl- aminonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl chloride(DNSCI )in acetonitrile. The diastereomers formed were separated on a reversed phase column by HPLC with fluorescence detection employing 0.6%phosphate buffer(pH 6.5)-methanof(3:8,
v/v)as mobile phase.The detection limit of each Ephedra alkaloid stereoisomer was 0.5 ng at a signal- to-noise ratio of 3 :1 ,the linear response to each stereoisomer being 1~800 ng· ml
-1.The plasma level profile of
l-Ep and
d-ps in guinea pig was investigated by this method. The determination of
l- Ep and d-Ps in plasma of a volunteer after oral administration of Xiao Qinglong Heji was also performed.