Determination of metoprolol enantiomers in human urine by coupled achiral-chiral chromatography.

Achiral chiral column switching HPLC assay was developed to allow the separation and quantitation of the enantiomers of metoprolol in human urine by means of fluorescence detection. Urine samples were prepared by liquid liquid extraction, followed by HPLC. The racemic metoprolol and internal standard were separated from the interfering components in urine and quantified on the silica column, and the enantiomers were determined on a Chiralcel OD chiral stationary phase. The two columns were connected by a switching valve equipped with a silica trap column. Detection limit was 25 ng/ml for each enantiomer. The intra-day variation ranged between 0.38 and 4.94% in relation to the measured concentration and the inter-day variation was 0.15-3.13%. It has been applied to the determination of (R)-(+)-metoprolol and (S)-(-)-metoprolol in urine from healthy volunteers dosed with racemic metoprolol tartrate.