Enantioselective high-performance liquid chromatography assay of (+)R- and (-)S-alpha-lipoic acid in human plasma

A specific plasma level assay for the enantiomers of alpha-lipoic acid is described. It makes use of liquid-liquid extraction, chemical reduction to the dithiol enantiomers, and their precolumn chiral derivatisation with o-phthalaldehyde in the presence of D-phenylalanine. The two diastereomeric derivatives are separated by reversed-phase HPLC with fluorescence detection. The working range of the assay is between 15 ng/ml (lower limit of quantitation) and 1,000 ng/ml for either enantiomer.