Determination of melatonin in saliva using automated solid-phase extraction, high-performance liquid chromatography and fluorescence detection

A sensitive bioanalytical method for the determination of melatonin in saliva by solid-phase extraction (SPE), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fluorescence detection has been developed and validated. Saliva was collected with a Salivette((R)) sampling device (Sarstedt) and a mixed-mode SPE column was used for the extraction of melatonin and internal standard (N-acetyl-6-methoxytryptamine) from the saliva. Chromatographic separation was performed using a HyPurity C18 LC column (150x2.1 mm) with mobile phase acetonitrile-ammonium hydrogen carbonate buffer, 0.015 M, pH 6.8 (23:77, v/v). Excitation and emission wavelengths were set to 285 nm and 345 nm, respectively. The within-day precision for the method at 50 pmol/L was 7.9% and the between-day precision was 10.5%. The limit of quantification was 50 pmol/L.