African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (13), pp. 1188-1190, 3 July 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Review

Rapid, cost-effective liquid chromatograghic method for the determination of metronidazole in biological fluids

Mustapha K.B¹, Odunola M.T.², Garba M.² and Obodozie O.¹

¹Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Quality Control, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Abuja, Nigeria.

²Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, A.B.U., Zaria, Nigeria.

*Corresponding authors E-mail: bolakud@yahoo.com

Accepted 3 February, 2006

A rapid and cost effective method for the analysis of metronidazole in biological samples was developed. The extraction method is a simple single-step liquid-liquid process that has eliminated the need for costly extraction and evaporation equipment. The mobile phase consists largely of water, making the method cheap to run with less than 6 min total analytical time per sample. The calibration curve was linear from 0 to 2.00 µg/ml. The regression coefficient was 0.99. The method is highly sensitive, with limit of detection of 1 ng/ml. The coefficient of variation for within-day run was less than 4% while that of day-to-day run was less than 6%. There were no interfering peaks from endogenous materials in the serum. The method was validated and used for pharmacokinetic studies.

Key words: Metronidazole, Liquid chromatographic, biological fluids.