Research Article Quantitative Analysis of Cepharanthine in Plasma Based on Semiautomatic Microextraction by Packed Sorbent Combined with Liquid Chromatography

Copyright © 2014 Camille Desgrouas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The spread of Plasmodium falciparum resistance toward most of the used drugs requires new antimalarial compounds. Taking advantage of the biodiversity, the ethnopharmacological approach opens the way for the discovery and the characterization of potent original molecules. Previous works led to the selection of a bisbenzylisoquinoline, cepharanthine, extracted from Stephania rotunda, which is mainly present in Cambodia. A sensitive and selective liquid chromatography method has been developed for the determination of cepharanthine in mouse plasma. The method involved a semiautomated microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) using 4mg of solid phase silica-C8 sorbent. LC separation was performed on a Kinetex XB-C18 column (2.