Chem. Pharm. Bull., 49(7),905-908, July 2001

Notes

Separation of Sympathomimetic Amines of Abuse and Related Compounds by Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography

Naotaka KURODA,^*,a Daisuke SATO,^a Kaname OHYAMA,^a Mitsuhiro WADA,^a Yuji NAKAHARA,^b and Kenichiro NAKASHIMA ^c

School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagasaki University,^a 1-14 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan, National Institute of Health Sciences,^b 1-18-1 Kamiyoga, Setagaya, Tokyo 158-8501, Japan, and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagasaki University,^c 1-14 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan.

Separation of twelve sympathomimetic amines and related compounds by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) with UV absorbance detection is described. These amines were well separated within 25 min using 50 mM sodium tetraborate solution containing 15 mM sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) of pH 9.3 as a running solution and detected at 210 nm. MEKC was performed with an applied voltage of 13 kV at 25 °C using a fused-silica capillary (50 cm×75 mm i. d.) with effective length of 37.5 cm. The detection limits of these compounds were in the range from 4 to 97 fmol/injection at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3. The reproducibility of the method expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD) for within-day (n=6) and between-day (n=5) assays was less than 4.8 and 8.8%, respectively. The proposed method could be applied to the determination of an anorectic drug, phentermine, in Chinese tea with a detection limit of 99 mg/g (105 fmol/injection, S/N=3).

Key words micellar electrokinetic chromatography; sympathomimetic amine; phentermine; Chinese tea