Rapid and selective high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of metronidazole and its active metabolite in human plasma, saliva and gastric juice.

A rapid and selective HPLC method has been developed for the separation and quantitation of metronidazole and its hydroxylated metabolite in human plasma, saliva and gastric juice. The assay requires a simple protein precipitation step prior to analysis and is selective, sensitive and reproducible. The limits of quantitation (0.5-ml sample) were at least 0.25 microgram/ml for metronidazole and 0.20 micrograms/ml for its hydroxy metabolite. A Hypersil ODS 5 micron (150 x 4.5 mm I.D.) column was used with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-aqueous 0.05 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7) containing 0.1 % triethylamine (10:90) delivered at a flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min.