Application of a liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric method to a kinetic study of derivative glucosamine in healthy human urine

A sensitive, selective and efficient liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric (LC/MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of glucosamine in healthy human urine. Urine samples were extracted by acetonitrile and derivatized with o-phthalaldehyde/3-mercaptopropionic acid. Analysis was then carried out using ESI source and methanol/0.2% ammonium acetate-0.1% formic acid mobile phase gradient elution, with tolterodine tartrate as the internal standard. The linear calibration curve ranged from 0.41 μg/ml to 82.7 μg/ml. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were less than 3.93% and 10.0%, respectively. The extraction recoveries determined at three concentration levels were higher than 88.6%. The method was successfully applied for determining the urine concentration of glucosamine up to 24 h after oral administration of 1 g glucosamine sulfate dispersible table (containing 785.08 mg glucosamine) from a clinical pharmacokinetic study in healthy volunteers.