High performance liquid chromatographic analysis of rabeprazole in human plasma and its pharmacokinetic application

A simple and sensitive HPLC method for the analysis of rabeprazole in plasma is described using UV detection in the presence of lorazepam as the internal standard. Rabeprazole and lorazepam were extracted with ethyl ether and quantitated using a reverse-phase C18 column. The method was specific as there were no interfering peaks in the human plasma eluting at the retention times of rabeprazole and lorazepam. The method was fully validated in human plasma for the concentration range of 20.0–1000.0 ng/ml. The correlation coefficients were greater than 0.999. Extraction recoveries were 72.3% for the drug and 79.1% for the internal standard. The method was simple, reliable, and accurate for the quantitation of rabeprazole in human plasma. The same plasma samples, which were collected in healthy male volunteers administered a 20 mg tablet of Pariet®, were analyzed by HPLC and LC/MS/MS. As a result of that, there was no significant difference between pharmacokinetic parameters. The suitability of HPLC method for pharmacokinetic studies was verified by determining the relevant pharmacokinetic parameters.