High-performance liquid chromatography with chemiluminescence detection of penbutolol and its hydroxylated metabolite in rat plasma.

This paper describes a new method of high-performance liquid chromatography with chemiluminescence detection for the analysis of penbutolol (PB) and its main metabolite, 4-hydroxy penbutolol (4-OH PB) in rat plasma. 4-Dimethylaminosulfonyl-7-(N-chloroformylmethyl-N-methyl) amino-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (DBD-COCl) was used as a fluorogenic labeling reagent. A mixture of hydrogen peroxide and bis[4-nitro-2-(3,6,9-trioxadecyloxycarbonyl)phenyl]oxalate (TDPO) in acetonitrile was used as a post-column chemiluminogenic reagent. The derivatives of PB and 4-OH PB with DBD-COCI were separated by isocratic effluent with 0.01 M imidazole buffer (pH 7.0)-acetonitrile within 10 min. The detection limits of the proposed method for PB and 4-OH PB were 9.9 and 15 fmol on column, respectively. After intravenous administration of PB in rats, its plasma concentration profiles of PB and 4-OH PB were determined by the proposed method. PB was demonstrated to be rapidly metabolized to 4-OH PB at the same rate as cardiac output.