High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of (R)-and (S)-proxyphylline in human plasma

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic assay has been developed for determination of (R)-(--)-and (S)-(+)-proxyphylline in human plasma. The procedure is based on liquid-solid extraction of proxyphylline from plasma followed by derivatization of extracted proxyphylline with (--)-camphanoyl chloride. The ratio between the enantiomers is calculated from the peak areas of the corresponding diastereoisomeric proxyphylline camphanates after injection into the liquid chromatograph. The recovery of proxyphylline from plasma was 88% (coefficient of variation = 4%) and proxyphylline was detectable from a plasma concentration of 0.2 micrograms/ml. Three different plasma extraction procedures for proxyphylline using Extrelut, Bond Elut, and Chem Elut columns have been developed and compared, and the rate of derivatization of the proxyphylline enantiomers with camphanoyl chloride has been studied.