Isolation and identification of the glucuronide conjugate of 2-hydroxydesipramine by preparative liquid...

A semi-preparative column liquid chromatographic procedure for the isolation and purification of milligram quantities of the glucuronide conjugate of 2-hydroxydesipramine, a major metabolite of desipramine, is presented. Urine from patients receiving desipramine was collected and passed through a column of XAD-2 resin. The methanolic extract was chromatographed on a reversed-phase octadecyl semi-preparative column followed by further purification on a silica gel column of the same dimension, yielding a product 95% pure. Fast atom bombardment and thermospray mass spectroscopy, as well as ultraviolet photodiode-array spectroscopy and hydrolysis with beta-glucuronidase confirmed the identification and purity of 2-hydroxydesipramine glucuronide. This important glucuronide metabolite will be a useful tool as an authentic standard for pharmacokinetic and metabolism studies and for determining its pharmacological characteristics in laboratory animals.