High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of the stereoselective biotransformation of the chiral drug praziquantel.

A selective reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous quantification of praziquantel and its monohydroxylated metabolites in serum is described. The quantitative analysis was followed by determination of the enantiomeric ratio of praziquantel and trans-4-hydroxypraziquantel, the main metabolite of praziquantel in humans, on a cellulose tris-3,5-dimethyl-phenylcarbamate column (Chiralcel OD). Serum level data for five volunteers after oral administration of racemic praziquantel were compared with in vitro metabolism data for praziquantel, obtained with liver microsomes of different species.