Determination of Alprazolam in Rabbit Plasma by GC-MS Method

This paper describes a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for determination of alprazolam in rabbit plasma. Alprazolam and internal standard (IS) medazepam were extracted from plasma by using liquid-liquid extraction method. The samples were separated by GC on a DB-5MS analytical column and determined by a quadrupole mass spectrometer detector operated under selected ion monitoring mode (SIM). Excellent linearity was found between 50 and 1000 ng/mL (r=0.998) for plasma samples. Intra-day and inter-day precisions expressed as the relative standard deviation (RSD) for the method were 1.07-2.69% and 2.42-3.98%, respectively. The mean recovery of alprazolam samples was 98.82%. The limits of detection and quantification of alprazolam were 15 and 50 ng/mL, respectively. Also, the method was successfully applied to three New Zealand white rabbits which had been given an oral tablet of 1.0 mg alprazolam.