Gas-liquid chromatographic determination of salsolinol in the striatum of rat brain during the calcium carbimide--ethanol interaction.

An assay has been developed for the measurement of salsolinol in brain tissue that involves tissue homogenization in dilute hydrochloric acid, purification of the supernatant by cation-exchange chromatography, derivatization of the eluate with heptafluorobutyric anhydride, and analysis by gas-liquid chromatography with electron capture detection using p-tyramine as the internal standard. The lower limit of quantitative sensitivity, using aqueous standards, is 2.5 ng salsolinol per brain sample. This assay was used to study salsolinol formation in rat brain during the calcium carbimide-ethanol interaction. Rats were administered ethanol (1.0 g/kg) by oral intubation 3 h after intraperitoneal administration of calcium carbimide (7.0 mg/kg). Salsolinol was measured in the striatum over a 270-min period after ethanol administration. Salsolinol concentration appeared to be maximal (275 ng/g) at 90 min and then declined with an apparent elimination half-life of 39.8 min.