Validated HPLC method for the determination of tinidazole in human serum and its application in a clinical pharmacokinetic study

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the determination of tinidazole in human serum using metronidazole as internal standard (IS) is described. Protein precipitation is used for the preparation of sample. Mobile phase consisting of 0.002 M phosphate buffer, methanol and acetonitrile mixture (85:7.5:7.5/v/v/v) was used at a flow rate of 1 ml/min on a C18 column. The eluate was monitored using an UV/Vis detector set at 320 nm. Ratio of peak area of analyte to IS was used for quantification of serum samples. The absolute recovery was greater than 95% over a concentration range of 0.5 to 30 micrograms/ml and the limit of quantitation was 0.05 microgram/ml. The intra-day relative standard deviation (RSD) measured at 0.5, 5, 15 and 30 micrograms/ml ranged from 0.36 to 6.14%. The inter-day RSD ranged from 1.14 to 4.21%. The method is simple, sensitive and has been successfully used in a pharmacokinetic study conducted in healthy human volunteers.