Simultaneous Determination of Flunixin, Phenylbutazone, Oxyphenbutazone and γ-Hydroxyphenylbutazone in Equine Plasma by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography: With Application to Pharmacokinetics

A high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of flunixin, phenylbutazone, oxyphenbutazone and γ-hydroxyphenylbutazone in equine plasma. Samples of plasma or sera were deproteinated by addition of acetonitrile containing the internal standard naproxen. The concentration step consisted of taking an aliquot of deproteinated plasma, evaporating under nitrogen to dryness and redissolving in mobile phase. The extracts were chromatographed on a Spherisorb 5 μm ODS column using an isocratic mobile phase of methanol (30% v/v), acetonitrile (20% v/v) and pH 3.0 1% acetate buffer (50% v/v) at a flow rate of 1.2 ml/min using naproxen as the internal standard. The detection limit for flunixin, phenylbutazone, oxyphenbutazone and γ-hydroxyphenylbutazone was 50 ng/ml. The developed chromatographic method was applied to the determination of equine nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory treatment. Plasma samples from clinically treated horses administered flunixin and phenylbutazone simultaneously are reported. Effect of different anticoagulants used in sampling is reported.