A simple liquid chromatography method for the determination of captopril in urine

A simple and specific method for the determination of total captopril in human urine was developed. 2-Chloro-1-methylquinolinium tetrafluoroborate was used as a thiol precolumn derivatizing reagent after conversion of a disulfide forms to free captopril with tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine hydrochloride. The 2-S-quinolinium derivative of captopril was separated on a Zorbax SB C- 18 column using reversed-phase ion-paring chromatography and monitored by spectrophotometric detector at 355 nm. The calibration curve for the derivatized captopril showed linearity in the range 0.1-200 mu mol L-1 of urine with a regression coefficient corresponding to 0.9999. The detection and quantitation limits were 0.05 and 0.1 mu mol L-1, respectively. The intra-day imprecision was from 0.01 to 10.58%. This method can be used for routine clinical monitoring of the thiol-drug. Omission of the reduction step gives result for concentration of the reduced form of captopril.