Simultaneous determination of propanil, carbaryl and 3,4-dichloroaniline in human serum by HPLC with UV detector following solid phase extraction

Abstract

In case of poisoning by herbicide compounded with Propanil (DCPA) and Carbaryl (NAC), we attempted simultaneous solid-phase extractions of DCPA, NAC, and 3,4-dichloroaniline (DCA), a metabolite of DCPA, from the patient's serum, and quantitative analytical method using HPLC-UV detection. With this HPLC method, the quantitative detection limits in the serum are 0.005 μg/ml for DCPA and DCA and 0.001 μg/ml for NAC, and the UV spectra of all three compounds could easily be obtained using a diode-array detection limit of 0.05 mg/ml. When the three compounds were added to serum at concentrations ranging from 0.1 - 10.0 μg/ml, the recovery rates were satisfactory at between 91.1% and 101.9%. On analysis of the serum of patient who had ingested Kusanon A Emulsion, the ingested substance apparently caused an increase in the DCA concentration, which led to the appearance of methemoglobinemia. The possibility that the DCA concentration might be used for prognositic purposes was suggested. © 2002 The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.