A Very Sensitive Bioanalytical Method for the Estimation of Escitalopram in Rat Plasma Using Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry-Application to Animal Pharmacokinetic Study

Escitalopram is a widely used antidepressant and antianxiety agent in clinical setup. This study was aimed at developing validating very sensitive specific bioanalytical method for the estimation of escitalopram rat plasma using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry as per current United States Food Drug Administration (May 2018) guideline. The spectrometer operated heated electrospray ionization mode positive ion detection. compounds were tuned monitored by selected reaction monitoring scan mode. Imipramine hydrochloride an internal standard. extraction technique to extract analyte from biological matrix liquidliquid technique. chromatographic separation done methanol:ammonium formate (2 mM, pH 3.00) (90:10 %v/v) mobile phase flow rate 0.500 ml/min run time 2.10 min. Detection quantification performed under selective electron spray transition 325.200 m/z (fragments 108.98 262.00 m/z) standard imipramine 281.200 58.20 86.19 m/z). demonstrated acceptable performance successfully applied 0.050 39.708 ng/ml range.