Improved high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of amphotericin B in human serum and plasma

An improved reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure is described for the determination of Amphotericin B (AMB) in human serum and plasma. The procedure involves the addition of the internal standard, p-nitroaniline, to the sample (0.1 ml) followed by protein precipitation with acetonitrile. The supernatant is injected directly onto a C8 chromatographic column and eluted with an acetonitrile-aqueous 0.01 M sodium acetate buffer, pH 7.4, mobile phase. A spectrophotometric detector operated at 405 nm is used. Retention times for internal standard and AMB are 5.2 and 6.6 min, respectively. The assay standard curve is linear between 0.05-2.0 micrograms cm-3. Within- and between-run relative standard deviations (RSD) for high and low concentrations of the drug are less than 5.30%. Analytical recovery of added AMB in serum is 98.4-101.4%. Data obtained by microbiological assay correlated well (r = 0.936) with LC results. Some commonly co-administered drugs and high concentrations of bilirubin are shown not to interfere.