LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHIC ASSAY OF CLAVULANIC ACID USING A HOLLOW-FIBER POSTCOLUMN REACTOR

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed to assay clavulanic acid in serum and urine. Clavulanic acid was separeted from background components of serum and urine by using an eluent containing tetrabutylammonium bromide as an ion-pairing agent and methanol as an organic modifier on a C₁₈ column. Subsequently, the eluent was introduced into a sulfonated polyethylene hollow fiber (0.25 mm i.d. × 50 cm) suspended in a 2 M sodium hydroxide solution followed by detection at 272 nm. At a clavulanic acid concentration of 0.5 μg/ml in serum samples, the precision (relative standard deviation) was 0.87% (n=10). The limit of detection was about 100 pg at the signal to noise ratio of 3.