Determination of valproic acid in human serum by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

Determination of Magnesium Valproate and Its Process Related Impurities by Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography

A selective ultraperformance liquid chromatographic (UPLC) method for the determination of magnesium valproate and its process related impurities has been developed. The method includes reversed-phase Acquity BEH C₁₈ column with 100 mm × 2.1 mm i.d. and 1.7 µ particle size. The mobile phase consists of acetonitrile and 5 mM ammonium dihydrogen orthophosphate with pH = 3.0 at 45 : 55 isocratic elution. The flow rate was set at 0.3 mL/min and UV detection was performed at 215 nm. A system suitability test (SST) was developed to govern the quality of the separation. The developed method has been validated further with respect to linearity, accuracy, precision, selectivity, LOD, LOQ, and robustness. Different batches of samples were examined using this method; the method proved to be successful when applied to analyze a marketed magnesium valproate formulation.

Quantitation of valproic acid in pharmaceutical preparations using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection without prior derivatization

Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID), has been successfully used for the extraction and determination of valproic acid (VPA) in pharmaceutical preparations. In the developed method, an appropriate mixture of extracting and disperser solvents was rapidly injected into an aqueous sample. Having formed a cloudy solution, the mixture was centrifuged and then the extracting solvent was sedimented at the bottom of a conical test tube. The extract was then injected into a GC system directly, without any further pretreatment. Initially, microextraction efficiency factors were optimized and the optimum experimental conditions found were as follows: tetrachloroethylene (9.0 µL) as extracting solvent; acetone (1.0 mL) as disperser solvent; 5 mL acidic aqueous sample (pH 1) without salt addition. Under the selected conditions, the calibration curve showed linearity in the range of 0.1-5.0 mg/L with regression coefficient corresponding to 0.9998. The limit of detection was found to be 0.05 mg/L. Finally, the method was applied for the determination of VPA in two different pharmaceutical preparations. A reasonable intra-assay (3.9-10.8%, n = 3) and inter-assay (5.6-11.4%, n = 3) precision illustrated the good performance of the analytical procedure. The protocol proved to be rapid and cost-effective for screening purposes.

Determination of valproic acid in human serum and pharmaceutical preparations by headspace liquid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-flame ionization detection without prior derivatization

An efficient and fast extraction technique for the enrichment of valproic acid from human blood serum samples using the headspace liquid phase microextraction (HS-LPME) combined with gas chromatography (GC) analysis has been developed. The extraction was conducted by suspending a 2 microL drop of organic solvent in a 1 mL serum sample; following 20 min of extraction, withdrawing organic solvent into a syringe and injection into a GC with a flame ionization detector (FID), without any further pre-treatment. Four organic solvents, 1-decanole, benzyl alcohol, 1-octanol and n-dodecane, were studied as extractants, and n-dodecane was found to be the most sensitive solvent for valproic acid. The results revealed that HS-LPME is suitable for the successful extraction of valproic acid from human blood serum samples. Parameters like extraction time, ionic strength, pH, organic solvent volume, and temperature of the sample were studied and optimized to obtain the best extraction results. An enrichment factor of 27-fold was achieved in 20 min. The procedure resulted in a relative standard deviation of <13.2% (n=7) and a linear calibration range from 2 to 20 microg mL(-1) (r>0.98), and the limit of detection was 0.8 microg mL(-1) in serum blank samples. Overall, LPME proved to be a fast, sensitive and simple tool for the preconcentration of valproic acid from real samples. The proposed method was also applied to the analysis of valproate in pharmaceutical preparations.

Direct determination of valproic acid in biological fluids by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection

Capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D) is a new technique providing high sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis (CE) especially for small ions that can otherwise only be determined with indirect methods. In this work, direct determination and validation of valproic acid (VPA) in biological fluids was achieved using CE with C(4)D. VPA is of pharmacological interest because of its use in epilepsy and bipolar disorder. The running electrolyte solution used consisted of 10mM 2-(N-morpholino)ethane sulfonic acid (MES)/dl-histidine (His) and 50microM hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB) at pH 6.0. Caproic acid (CA) was selected as internal standard (IS). Analyses of VPA in serum, plasma and urine samples were performed in less than 3min. The interference of the sample matrix was reduced by deproteinization of the sample with acetonitrile (ACN). The effect of the solvent type and ratio on interference was investigated. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) of VPA in plasma samples were determined as 24 and 80ng/ml, respectively. The method is linear between the 2 and 150microg/ml, covering well the therapeutic range of VPA (50-100microg/ml).

Development and validation of a sensitive assay of valproic acid in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography without prior derivatization

Sensitive and selective determination of valproic acid in plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is usually achieved with pre-column derivatization. In the present work, the derivatization is omitted due to using a simple but highly selective plasma extraction procedure and an optimized chromatographic condition. Valproic acid and the internal standard octanoic acid were extracted from plasma samples with n-hexane under acidic condition followed by back-extraction into diluted triethylamine. Chromatography was performed on a CN column (250 x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) under isocratic elution with acetonitrile-40 mM aqueous sodium dihydrogen phosphate (30:70, v/v), pH 3.5. Detection was made at 210 nm and analyses were run at a flow-rate of 1 ml/min. The method was specific and sensitive with a quantification limit of 1.25 microg/ml and a detection limit of 0.1 microg/ml in plasma. The mean absolute recovery for valproic acid using the present plasma extraction procedure was 75.8%. The intra- and inter-day coefficient of variation and percent error values of the assay method were all in acceptable range. Calibration curves were linear (r>0.999) from 1.25 to 320 microg/ml in plasma.

Liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method for the quantification of valproic acid in human plasma

A simple, sensitive and rapid liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of valproic acid, an antiepileptic drug, in human plasma using benzoic acid as internal standard (IS). Following solid-phase extraction, the analytes were separated using an isocratic mobile phase on a reversed-phase C18 column and analyzed by MS in the single ion monitoring mode using the respective [M-H]- ions, m/z 143 for valproic acid and m/z 121 for the IS. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 0.5-60 microg/mL for valproic acid in human plasma. The lower limit of quantification was 500 ng/mL with a relative standard deviation of less than 10%. Acceptable precision and accuracy were obtained for concentrations over the standard curve range. The average absolute recoveries of valproic acid and the IS from spiked plasma samples were 96.1+/-4.2 and 95.6+/-2.7%, respectively. A run time of 4.5 min for each sample made it possible to analyze more than 250 human plasma samples per day. The validated method has been successfully used to analyze human plasma samples for application in pharmacokinetic, bioavailability and bioequivalence studies.

Determination of antiepileptic drugs in biological material

Current analytical methodologies applied to the determination of antiepileptic drugs in biological material are reviewed. The role of chromatographic techniques is emphasized. Special attention is focused on new chemical entities as well as current trends such as high-speed liquid chromatographic techniques, hyphenated techniques and electrochromatography techniques. A review with 542 references.