OBJECTIVE To establish a method for determining galanthamine in human plasma.METHODS A high performance liquid chromatographic
assay with UV detection was developed,the detection wavelength was 224 nm.The plasma sample was extracted with n hexane:ethyl acetate(1∶1) after alkalization by addition of 1 mol·L -1 NaOH solution.The sample was separated on Hypersil C 18 column (200 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm),with acetonitrile water tetrahydrofuran (60∶910∶30)(pH 2.6)as the mobile phase (flow rate 1.0 mL·min -1 ),1.8 g sodium 1 heptane sulfonate and 1 mL triethylamine were added in 1L mobile phase.RESULTS The calibration curve was linear over the range of 2.5～160.0 ng·mL -1 ( r=0.999 9,n =7).The limit of detection was 1.25 ng·mL -1 .The mean recoveries of low,medium and high concentrations of check samples were (106.35±5.76)%,(105.41±7.30)% and (100.19±5.81)%
respectively.The main
pharmacokinetic parameters of galanthamine were as follows: t 1/2 (8.68±1.87) h, t max (0.88±0.61) h, c max (69.72±14.73) ng·mL -1 ,AUC 0～30 (519.57±94.79) ng·h·mL -1 ,AUC 0～∞ (571.91±102.54) ng·h·mL -1 ,respectively.CONCLUSION The present study provided a reliable quantitative method for pharmacokinetic study of galanthamine.