Determination of Salvinorin A in body fluids by high performance liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization.

Salvinorin A was quantitated in human and rhesus monkey plasma, rhesus monkey cerebrospinal fluid, and human urine by negative ion LC-MS/APCI. The method for Salvinorin A has been fully validated, the LLOQ using FDA guidelines is 2 ng/mL for 0.5 mL plasma samples. The linear range was from 2 to 1000 ng/mL. Several derivatives in the Salvinorin family can also be analyzed by this method; d(3)-Salvinorin A was prepared and used as internal standard. The metabolite Salvinorin B can be semi quantitatively determined. The method has been used to establish that Salvinorin B is the principal metabolite of Salvinorin A ex vivo and to establish the analytical method to study in vivo samples.