Determination of the enantiomers of citalopram, its demethylated and propionic acid metabolites in human plasma by chiral HPLC

Abstract A stereoselective HPLC assay has been developed to analyze the enantiomers of citalopram and of its three main metabolites in plasma after their separation on a Chiracel OD column. Using a fluorescence detector, the limit of quantification in plasma samples was 15, 4, 5, and 2 ng/ml for the enantiomers of citalopram (CIT), desmethylcitalopram (DCIT), didesmethylcitalopram (DDCIT), and for the citalopram propionic acid derivative (CIT‐PROP), respectively. Except for CIT, all metabolites were derivatized with achiral reagents. Identification of the enantiomers was realized with an optical rotation detector which showed that the enantiomers invert their rotation depending on the polarity and nature of the solvent. Under varying conditions, a racemization study has shown that the pure enantiomers of CIT and its demethylated metabolites are configurationally stable. Preliminary results obtained with five patients treated with CIT show a mean S/R ratio of 0.7 for both CIT and its active metabolite DCIT and of 3.6 for CIT‐PROP in plasma. This suggests that the pharmacologically relevant (+)‐(S)‐isomers of CIT and DCIT could be preferentially and steroselectively metabolized to CIT‐PROP. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.