High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Rivastigmine in Human Plasma for Application in Pharmacokinetic Studies

A simple and reproducible HPLC method with spectrophotometric detection was developed for determination of rivastigmine in human plasma. Liquid-liquid extraction of rivastigmine and donepezil (as internal standard) from plasma samples was performed with 1-butanol/n-hexane (2:98 v/v) in alkaline condition followed by back-extraction into diluted acetic acid. Chromatography was carried out using a Silica column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) under isocratic elution with acetonitrile-50 mM aqueous sodium dihydrogen phosphate (17: 83 v/v, pH 3.1. Analyses were run at a flow-rate of 1.3 mL/min at of 50°C. The recovery was 90.8% and 95.7% for rivastigmine and the internal standard donepezil, respectively. The precision of the method was 2.6% to 9.1% over the concentration range of 0.5-16 ng/mL for rivastigmine in plasma with a linearity greater than 0.999. The method was specific and sensitive, with a quantification limit of 0.5 ng/mL and a detection limit of 0.2 ng/mL in plasma. The method was used for a bioequivalence study in healthy subjects.