Multimodal liquid chromatographic separation methods in the study of ethimizol metabolism in man.

The metabolism of ethimizol in the human body has been investigated. Focus was on the detection and demonstration of the regioselective pathway of metabolic demethylation of ethimizol by determining the presence of the corresponding metabolites in blood, saliva and urine. Isolation, purification and identification of the metabolites present in the biological samples was achieved by applying a combination of the following methods: solid phase extraction, high performance liquid chromatography, high performance thin layer chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. The suggested chemical structures were definitely established by comparing the physicochemical characteristics of the ethimizol metabolites obtained from the individual biological fluids with the characteristics of synthetized authentic derivatives.