Oxybuprocaine and five metabolites simultaneously determined in urine by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after extraction with Extrelut.

ABSTRACT

We describe a gas-liquid chromatographic (GC) method for determination of oxybuprocaine, and a gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method for simultaneous determination of four of its nine metabolites in urine. We used an Extrelut column to simply and rapidly extract oxybuprocaine and its metabolites from urine. For the GC-MS analyses, we monitored the characteristic fragment ions at m/z 353, 395, 369, 411, and 235 for 3-butoxy-4-aminobenzoic acid (metabolite 2, M-2), 3-butoxy-4-acetylaminobenzoic acid (M-3), 3-hydroxy-4-aminobenzoic acid (M-4), 3-hydroxy-4-acetylaminobenzoic acid (M-5), and methaqualone (internal standard), respectively. We quantified the glucuronide of M-2 after enzymic treatment. The assay's selectivity and reproducibility (within-day and between-day CVs less than 8% for all metabolites) make it applicable to determine oxybuprocaine and its metabolites in human urine. Mean 9-h urinary excretion of oxybuprocaine and its five metabolites from four healthy volunteers was 89.2% after a 100-mg oral dose.