Abstract: A simple, precise and sensitive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method coupled with pulse splitless injection technique was developed for the determination of 10 sedative-hypnotics (barbital, amobarbital, phenobarbital, oxazepam, diazepam, nitrazepam, clonazepam, estazolam, alprazolam, triazolam) in human plasma. The drugs spiked in plasma were extracted with ethyl acetate after alkalization with 0.1 mol/L NaOH solution. The organic solvent was evaporated under nitrogen stream, and the residues were redissolved by ethyl acetate. The separation was performed on an HP-5MS column (30 m×250 μm×0.25 μm). The analytes were determined and identified using selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode and scan mode, respectively. The internal standard method was used for the determination. The target analytes were well separated from each other on their SIM chromatograms and also on the total ion current (TIC) chromatograms. The blank extract from human plasma gave no peaks that interfered with all the analytes on the chromatogram. The calibration curves for 10 sedative-hypnotics showed excellent linearity. The correlation coefficients of all the drugs were higher than 0.9954. The recoveries of the drugs spiked in human plasma ranged from 92.28% to 111.7%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intra-day and inter-day determinations were from 4.09% to 14.26%. The detection limits ranged from 2 to 20 μg/L. The method is simple, reliable, rapid and sensitive for the determination and the quantification of 10 sedative-hypnotics in human plasma and seems to be useful in the practice of clinical toxicological cases.

Key words: plasma, plasma qualitative and quantitative analysis, pulse splitless, pulse splitless injection, sedative-hypnotics, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)