Estimation of nicotine in human plasma by HPLC

A simple, rapid and sensitive high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the analysis of nicotine in plasma. This method involved simple extraction procedure prior to chromatographic analysis. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a reverse phase C₁₈ column with ultraviolet detection at 260 nm. The mobile phase consisted of 0.3% triethylamine buffer adjusted to pH 7.0 using phosphoric acid and methanol in the ratio of 60:40. The isocratic system was operated at ambient temperature and requires 20 min of chromatographic time at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Acetanilide was used as an internal standard. The recovery was found to be 85.3% with interday precision of about 6.60 %. The extraction method of nicotine from plasma was simple, rapid, sensitive and no interference from plasma components observed.