High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of melatonin in human plasma and rabbit serum with on-line column enrichment.
This paper describes the development of a simple and sensitive analytical method for the quantification of melatonin in human plasma and rabbit serum, using standard analytical equipment and on-line column enrichment without prior extraction, clean-up or derivatization. The analytical procedure was found to be accurate, precise and linear. For human plasma, the accuracy was 101% (range 89-106%), and the mean precision was 5% (range 2-9%) for all concentrations (0, 2, 10, 50 and 200 ng/ml) tested (n=6). The accuracy in rabbit serum was 101% (range 90-112%), and the mean precision was 13% (range 8-19%) for all concentrations (0, 2, 10, 50, 200 and 500 ng/ml) tested (n=6). The retention time of melatonin was about 8 min and the total recoveries were found to be approximately 65 and 85%, respectively, for human plasma and rabbit serum. The limit of detection was found to be lower than 1 ng/ml for human plasma and around 2 ng/ml for rabbit serum. The method is, therefore, found to be suitable for melatonin bioavailability studies in rabbits and presumably also in humans.
Bechgaard
E
E
The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics, Copenhagen.
Lindhardt
K
K
Martinsen
L
L
D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006801:Humans; D008550:Melatonin / Q000097:blood*; D011817:Rabbits; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
D008550:Melatonin