HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR THE QUANTITATIVE-DETERMINATION OF URINARY PHENYLSULFATE AND PHENYLGLUCURONIDE AS INDEXES OF BENZENE AND PHENOL EXPOSURE IN RATS

A high performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of phenylsulfate and phenylglucuronide, metabolites of benzene, or phenol in urine is described. For the determination of urinary phenylsulfate, a stainless-steel column packed with octadecyl-silanized silica gel was used, and the mobile phase was mixed with a solution of methanol/water acetic acid (20/80/0.2) containing 0.05 M tetra-n-butylammonium bromide. For the exact determination of urinary phenylglucuronide, a stainless-steel column packed with the same resin was used and the mobile phase was a solution of methanol/water/acetic acid (50/50/0.2) containing 0.05 M tetra-n-butylammonium bromide. The method is simple and specific. Urine can be analyzed directly, without solvent extraction or pretreatment. The method has a lowest detection limit of 0.2 μg on the column. The whole analysis and quantitative determination can be performed within about 15 min for samples containing phenylsulfate and phenylglucuronide in the urine of rats. The phenylsulfate excreted was equivalent to 36.1% and phenylglucuronide was 51.8% of phenol administered to rats intraperitoneally. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.