Abstract

The analytical method of HPLC with the radial-flow electrochemical cell (RFEC) has been developed to determine doxorubicin, epirubicin, nogalamycin, daunorubicin and idarubicin simultaneously by employing a reversed-phase chromatography. Anthracyclines were detected at -0.74 V vs. a Ag/AgCl (0.01 M NaCl) reference electrode, a potential of diffusion current plateau in the mobile phase. At a <TEX>$V_f$</TEX> of 1.0 mL/min doxorubicin, epirubicin, daunorubicin and idarubicin appeared at a retention time (<TEX>$t_r$</TEX>) of 6.4 min, 7.4 min, 12.7 min and 18.4 min, respectively, while at a <TEX>$V_f$</TEX> of 0.6 mL/min, doxorubicin, epirubicin, nogalamycin, daunorubicin and idarubicin appeared at a <TEX>$t_r$</TEX> of 9.9 min, 11.5 min, 13.5 min, 19.6 min and 28.7 min, respectively. The linearity between each anthracycline injected (<TEX>$2.40{\times}10^{-7}M{\sim}1.42{\times}10^{-5}M$</TEX>) and peak area (charge) was excellent with the square of the correlation coefficient (<TEX>$R^2$</TEX>) higher than 0.999. The detection limits were <TEX>$1.0{\times}10^{-8}M{\sim}1.5{\times}10^{-7}M$</TEX> for the five anthracyclines. Within-day precision for the five anthracyclines were in reasonable relative standard deviations less than 3 % (<TEX>$1.00{\times}10^{-6}M{\sim}1.42{\times}10^{-5}M$</TEX>) except the lower concentrations less than <TEX>$0.7{\mu}M$</TEX>. Solid phase extractions of <TEX>$1.00{\times}10^{-5}M$</TEX> epirubicin, <TEX>$0.48{\times}10^{-5}M$</TEX> nogalamycin and <TEX>$1.52{\times}10^{-5}M$</TEX> daunorubicin from human serum with a <TEX>$C_{18}$</TEX> cartridge resulted in 97 %, 100 % and 90 % of recoveries, respectively.