Determination of buspirone, fluoxetine, escitalopram and paroxetine by HPTLC after SPE extraction

Abstract

Introduction Patients with depression tend to abuse psychotropic drugs, take more than one antidepressant at the same time or at higher doses, use them as the suicidal agent [2]. In this case, there is an increased risk of poisoning, causing serotonergic syndrome or even death [1]. As a result, antidepressants are often found as an overdose cause in clinical practice. In order to determine which drug a person is poisoned with, it is useful to analyze the most effective and fastest ways to extract these drugs from plasma, separate and identify them. We analyzed buspirone (BUS), fluoxetine (FLU), escitalopram (ESCI) and paroxetine (PAR). Materials and Methods The SPE method (1 cm3 30 mg Oasis HLB reversed phase extraction columns, Waters, USA) was used to isolate the analytes from blood plasma. Separation and identification of analytes was obtained with using silica gel plates (HPTLC Silica gel 60 F254). The standards and test solution were injected by Camag Linomat 5 with volume 7 μL. Plasma solution was made by mixing plasma and each standard solution to equal parts. SPE eluting step was performed with methanol, propanol, trichlormetan, acetonitrile, 80% ethanol in water solution, 2% acidified with concentrated formic acid, 80% ethanol in water solution, 2% alkalined with ammonia solution. HPTLC mobile phase was made of acetonitrile:methanol:25%ammonia solution (85:10:5). The HPTLC determination was made with UV detector at the wavelength 254 nm. Results and discussion Therefore, the most appropriate eluent was found to be 80% ethanol in water solution, 2% acidified with concentrated formic acid for the best separation and identification of the analytes ESCI, FLU, PAR, BUS. HPTLC plate results showed the fast separation and indication of each drug, extracted from blood plasma. Spots from test solution corresponded to spots obtained from standard solutions. Rf of compounds BUS, PAR, ESCI, FLU was found as 0,92, 0,60, 0,72, 0,65 respectively. These results sh