ION-PAIR HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF STRYCHNINE ALKALOID IN AN ANIMAL TISSUE

A method for the determination of strychnine alkaloid residues in animal tissues using ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography is described. Following treatment with triethylamine, strychnine was extracted from whole-ground northern pocket gopher tissue with n-butyl chloride. The extraction solvent was evaporated and the sample reconstituted in the liquid chromatographic mobile phase containing the ion-pairing reagent heptanesulfonic acid. This method enables better than 80% strychnine recovery from tissue samples fortified with strychnine at concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 50 mu g/g. Excellent precision is also obtained as demonstrated by standard deviations of replicate analyses of approximately 5%. The method limit of detection was 100 ng of strychnine/g of sample.