High performance liquid chromatographic determination of clocapramine in feed and plasma

A high performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the determination of clocapramine in animal feed and plasma. Samples are made alkaline and then extracted with chloroform containing opipramol as internal standard. For plasma samples, the organic phase is evaporated to dryness under a stream of nitrogen, and the residue is dissolved in dichloromethane-methanol. Extracts are chromatographed on silica gel with dichloromethane-methanol-ammonia (100 + 10 + 0.25) as eluant, and quantitated using an internal standard. Within-day precision for plasma extracts (n = 15) was 3.39, 5.7, and 4.13% at 5, 10, and 15 mg clocapramine/L plasma, respectively, and day-to-day precision was 4.6, 6.8, and 4.4% at the same levels. The detection limit was 0,5 mg/L. Recovery from feed over the concentration range 2-6 g/kg was greater than 96%.