Determination of vincamine in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.

A simple and rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of vincamine in human plasma. Plasma samples were buffered at pH 9 and after extraction with tert.-butyl methyl ether back-extracted into 0.017 M orthophosphoric acid. Propranolol was used as the internal standard. An aliquot was injected on to a high-performance liquid chromatographic system using a C18 reversed-phase column and an acetonitrile-phosphate buffer containing triethylamine (30:70) as mobile phase. Detection was performed with an ultraviolet detector at 273 nm. The method had good accuracy and precision and the detection limit (0.3 ng/ml with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3:1) allowed the assessment of vincamine concentrations in plasma in pharmacokinetic studies on healthy human volunteers.