A spectrophotometric method for detection of 5'-fluorouracil in plasma

A quantitative method using spectrophotometry was devised for the detection of 5'-Fluorouracil (FUra) in plasma. Plasma samples obtained at different time intervals from drug treated rabbits were deproteinised using phenol. The aqueous phase was lyophilised and dissolved in 0.01 N NaOH and absorption was monitored at 305 nm. Levels of FUra in the plasma were calculated by comparing with a standard graph generated from known concentrations of FUra. As low as 1 microgram of the drug per ml of plasma could be detected by this method.