High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of galanthamine, a long-acting anticholinesterase drug, in serum, urine, and bile

The anticholinesterase drug galanthamine (I) [357-70-0] is obtained from alkalinized serum by repeated liq.-liq. extn. The resulting ext. is approx. 100 times concd. with respect to the original sample. Quant. detn. of galanthamine is performed with normal-phase liq. chromatog. using a mixt. of CH2Cl2-C6H14-ethanolamine (500:500:0.25) as eluent. Phenacetin is used as internal std. The absorption of the column effluent is monitored at 235 nm. No endogenous sources of interference have been obsd. A galanthamine serum level of 5 ng/mL is found as the min. detectable concn.; the coeff. of variation at this level is 37.8%. For the assay of galanthamine in the concn. range 10-100 ng/mL, std. deviations vary between 18.9 and 2.5%. The assay procedure presented is also suitable for the detn. of galanthamine in urine and bile.