Determination of platinum and gold in anticancer and antiarthritic drugs and metabolites

This is a review of methods for the determination of two of the precious metals, platinum and gold, in pharmaceutical products and in biological materials containing these elements. The information presented here is drawn from a large number of reports published in the period 1990-1995. In addition to methods for determination of the total metal contents of biological samples, important work on the separation of intact drugs and of biotransformation products by means of high performance liquid chromatography is summarized. Instrumental techniques for determinations of the metals include the following: atomic absorption spectrometry; UV/Vis spectrometry, and derivatization reactions followed by spectrophotometric measurements; inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry and-mass spectrometry; nuclear activation; and, sensitive electrometric methods. Recent reports related to stability and storage of samples are also included.