Rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of colchicine in human plasma

A rapid and sensitive method to determine colchicine in human plasma by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) has been developed. Colchicine and the internal standard (I.S.), tegafur, were extracted from the matrix with n-hexane:dichloromethane:isopropanol (300:150:15, v/v/v) and separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using formic acid:10 mM ammonium acetate:methanol (1:49:75, v/v/v) as the mobile phase in a run time of 2.5 min. Detection was carried out by electrospray positive ionization mass spectrometry in the multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The assay was linear in the concentration range 0.050–10 ng/ml with intra- and inter-day precision (as relative standard deviation (R.S.D.)) of <2 and <7%, respectively. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study of colchicine in healthy volunteers given an oral dose of 2.0 mg.